If given two words to summarize 2021 season at Space Camp, two top choices would be, “adapt” and “overcome”.

While 2020 brought many challenges, 2021 brought a renewed sense of focus on the core mission at Space Camp. There was quite a bit of adapting that needed to take place, masks were in place for campers during the summer months, social distancing was in effect, and smaller team sizes took on missions together. However these adaptions didn’t take away from Space Camp programming and the year became the story of how the beloved educational program overcame all of the challenges and changes the current environment created.

Donors came out to support Space Camp in a variety of ways. The all new Space Camp Explorers Club was launched, engaging supporters in an all new way with new monthly content and behind the scenes from the ground. Scholarships for the Space Camp general scholarship were funded, to bring more children to camp in summer 2022, a $250,000 contribution to the museum endowment by the Schronrock family, and donors that even were generous with unique gifts they could give to the camp as well – like a “new-to-camp” helo dunker, provided by Albert Bohemier and transportation costs to bring the dunker to Alabama from Canada provided by J Spencer. At the groundbreaking of the new Space Camp Operations Center building, slated to open in 2023, Boeing announced its donation of $3.5 million to name the building. The single largest donation given to the Center to date.

All of these unique ways to support came together in 2021 to continue to strengthen the U.S. Space & Rocket Center and its programs, providing a bright future for future participants of Space Camp.

Watch our year in review 2021, to see some video highlights throughout the year: