Sleepaway Camp, But Make It Space

Growing up in the 90s, I watched a lot of Nickelodeon television shows. I especially enjoyed the game shows where “kidtestants” competed in slime-covered obstacle courses to win a grand prize—an all-expenses-paid trip to Space Camp. This place where children could play astronaut amazed me. It stuck in my mind and became a lifelong fascination, so much so that it is one of the subjects of my current research.  

Space Camp opened at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, in the summer of 1982, as a weeklong sleepaway camp for middle school students. This was the dawn of the Space Shuttle era, and there was renewed national enthusiasm for spaceflight. The leaders of the Space and Rocket Center recognized an opportunity to harness this excitement to build a next generation workforce for NASA. If the Space Shuttle was really going to fly 40 to 60 missions a year over multiple decades, as planned, NASA would need a large and capable workforce for many years to come. Space Camp promised to prepare young people for future aerospace careers.  

The Space and Rocket Center team collaborated with experts from NASA and the aerospace industry, as well as educators, to develop the first Space Camp curriculum. It included classroom lessons on the history of spaceflight and hands-on activities, such as building and launching model rockets. The weeklong program culminated in a simulated space mission, with each camper playing the role of astronaut or flight controller in space shuttle orbiter and mission control mock-ups, respectively.  

The program proved so popular that organizers soon developed curricula for more advanced camps, including weekend programming for adults. The Space and Rocket Center built additional training facilities and a capacious dormitory, and invested in increasingly sophisticated simulator equipment, some designed by retired NASA personnel. Space Camp expanded nationally and internationally, establishing programs in Florida, California, and Japan.  

Over more than 40 years, some 1 million people have participated in Space Camp at the original facilities in Alabama. Its enduring popularity reveals how much people of all ages want to get close to spaceflight and make it a part of their lives. Participating in Space Camp requires significant time, funds, and family coordination. Generations of children and adults alike have saved up to pay for registration, travel costs, and (for the parents and adult campers) time off from work. Families plan road trips or flights to Huntsville and book accommodations and activities during the week their children attend camp. This is no mean feat.    

Space Camp is an example of how leisure time activities for children and adults can fuel their passion for spaceflight. The Futures in Space team knows this better than most—two of the team members are Space Camp alumni. I attended Adult Space Academy while I was in graduate school in 2017. After spending two weeks in the U.S. Space and Rocket Center Archives researching the history of Space Camp, I finally had a chance to experience it myself. Coincidentally, I ran into Ashley Hornish, an exhibit designer from the National Air and Space Museum—who would later become the design manager for Futures in Space, and Ashlee Prevette, who would become project manager for the transformation of the galleries at the National Mall Building. 

The exhibit team chose to feature a Space Camp model rocket in a section of the gallery that addresses the different motivations for going to space, and how we express them. In fact, it’s the rocket that I built at Space Camp. Building and launching flying model rockets is one of the hallmarks of the Space Camp experience. Participants construct the rockets from kits, personalizing them with decorations. Teams safely launch them outdoors, each member hoping their rocket will fly furthest before parachuting back to Earth. The rocket on display in the gallery represents the shared experience.  

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Since the beginning of NASA’s human spaceflight program, many people have dreamed of floating in microgravity or looking at Earth from above. Only a lucky few will have an opportunity to experience spaceflight as government or private astronauts. For millions of other aspiring space travelers, experiencing simulated missions at Space Camp or visiting NASA sites may be the next best thing.