(Photo courtesy of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center)
During the 1980s, Space Campers got to don spacesuits and conduct EVAs on the lunar surface! Can you imagine wearing spacesuits under the hot, Alabama sun? 
Changes are afoot at the Mission Center Complex. Endeavour is moving to make room for a new, permanent exhibit ‘Space Station: Science On Orbit’. This exciting, new exhibit will immerse visitors in the engineering that went into the International Space Station as well as the science taking place on it; hearing from many of the engineers, scientist, and astronauts that have been involved. The exhibit will feature several interactive exhibits and will show how the research being conducted in space is used to improve life on Earth as well as how to survive long-duration space exploration. Visitors have the added benefit of seeing Space Camp Trainees conducting training and simulated missions as part of the immersive exhibit experience. 
(Photo courtesy U.S. Space & Rocket Center) Does this look familiar to you? This is how the Training Center Floor (Now the Mission Center Floor) appeared in the early 1990’s. Some of the Simulators shown are the Multi Axis Trainers (2), Space Station Mobility Trainer, Manned Maneuvering Unit simulator, Mars Mission simulator, and the Shuttle simulators (from left to right): Enterprise, Columbia, Discovery, Endeavour, and Atlantis.
Our Mission Has Just Begun…In 2014 the 650,000+ alumni of the Space Camp and Aviation Challenge programs took a significant step forward in ensuring a bright future for current and future program trainees and also establishing a forum to connect with each other: we formed the Alumni Advancement Board. Chartered with creating ways for alumni to give back to the Camp programs, alums have already contributed more than 750 hours and over $55,000 to Camp scholarships; outreach events such as Oshkosh AirVenture, Beirgarten, F-16 ‘RedTail’ Restoration Weekends, & Alumni Weekend; and, of course, the first project for the Space Camp Alumni Board, the Land the STA N945NA Project. I’m amazed by the many Space Camp and Aviation Challenge Alumni we encountered this year who so passionately want to spread the good word about Camp and the impact it had on their lives and careers. The enthusiasm and energy they carry outside our own community to anyone and everyone who will lend an ear is a mighty force helping grow the opportunities for youth and adults attending camp and our own alumni ranks! Regarding connecting to other alumni and camp; the Alumni Advancement Board has established a set of online channels, to form the early framework of a true Alumni Association. We look to build upon this foundation to ensure scale, sustainability, and impact of the community to endow a legacy of outreach, volunteerism, and philanthropy for years to come. Our 2015 portfolio of initiatives and events is burgeoning: including a Scholarship Campaign, continued aircraft/artifact restoration programs, and planning an exciting and reimagined Alumni Reunion Weekend in July. We’re kicking off 2015 with a renewed call for volunteers to support this ambitious portfolio. To find out more about these efforts and lend a hand, click here. It’s an exciting time. As we dawn on a new age of human spaceflight and exploration, Camp is evolving in step with those changes. As the Space Camp Alumni community, we have the opportunity to trumpet the importance of STEM experiences for innovation and exploration and to endow and enhance the programs for the next generation of explorers as Space Camp inspires trainees to pursue their dreams. Join us this year to deepen your Space Camp adventure – it’s clear ‘our mission has just begun’. Ad Astra Per Alas Fideles, (‘To the Stars on the Wings of the Faithful Ones’) John John Ramsey Chairman Space Camp Alumni Advancement Board
ATTENTION ALL SPACE CAMP ALUMNI IN THE FLORIDA SPACE COAST REGION AND/OR THOSE ATTENDING THE ORION EFT-1 LAUNCH: The Space Camp Alumni Advancement Board will be participating in a pre-launch dinner Wednesday, December 3rd beginning at 6:00PM at El Leoncito in Titusville, FL (El Leoncito – 4280 S. Washington Ave (US#1); Titusville, FL 32780 http://elleoncito.com/ ) This dinner is being hosted by a combination of Space Camp Alumni and NASA Social Alumni and with participation from not only these groups, but also the space enthusiast community at-large.
As a part of the evening’s events, John Ramsey – AAB Chair, along with other members of the board will be presenting an update on Space Camp and the AAB’s plans for 2015 and beyond. You won’t want to miss this evening with a great group of alumni and all-around space enthusiasts as we celebrate Human Spaceflight, Space Camp, STEM Education, and the first step in the ‘Next Giant Leap’. We encourage you to wear your flight suits, jackets, hats, or any other camp memorabilia for the evening’s events – and come prepared to tell YOUR Space Camp story for our roving video cameras on how it inspired you and affected your life. Please RSVP here by Thursday, November 20th if you plan to attend. Look forward to seeing you there!
This summer at Alumni Weekend, Katie Roller Schulz Ditchen, Chair of the Fundraising Committee, and I, Ben Chandler, your Vice-Chair of the Alumni Advancement Board, had the privilege of presenting four incredible alumni with awards to honor their commitment to alumni advancement during the Hall of Fame dinner. These particular alumni have devoted a substantial amount of time and resources to mobilizing the community and getting the word out about our movement. With this first night of recognition, we hope to have carved the path forward to continue recognizing the accomplishments, leadership, and contributions of our Alumni community. The CEO Leadership Award was given to AAB Chair John Ramsey. John has been a constant driving force within the AAB over the last year. His commitment and work ethic are inspirational. Through John’s leadership the AAB has successfully raised $70,000 towards the movement of the Shuttle Training Aircraft, organized a significant alumni presence at EAA/Oshkosh 2014, and along with Chris Key, a fellow AAB board member, helped honor the Tuskegee Airman with our rededicated Red Tail F-16. BIG THANKS, JOHN! The Space Camp Foundation Award was presented to Darlene Perry Smith. The Foundation Award is given too an alumni whose fundraising efforts have helped further the USSRC and its missions. Darlene, a past AAB Board member, has shown us what is possible when intelligence, creativity and opportunity are combined. Many, many thanks, Darlene! The Space Camp Pinnacle Award went to alumni Brian Matney, whose innovation and creativity designed our new Alumni logo. Brian is truly an artist. We are very fortunate to have him engaged with Space Camp and donating his time to the Alumni community. His logo designing skills were, of course, fostered at Space Camp designing mission patches for his teams as a child. Truly impressive Brian! It came as no shock that Whitney Zatzkin received the Space Camp Spirit Award for her contribution to outreach. Whitney and her husband Jake are the only reason we have launched SpaceCampAlumni.com. As if that wasn’t enough, Whitney spent 7 days at Oshkosh, serving as the social media lead for the multiple accounts of USSRC and the newly launched accounts for AAB. She is without a doubt one of the most capable/hardworking people I have ever met. Truly an evening with leaders! We sincerely hope these recognitions inspire the next year of activity and dedication to the Alumni community here at SpaceCampAlumni.com. Further, we hope it inspires your commitment to join us in 2015 at Alumni Weekend! See you there! Ben Chandler Vice-Chair of the Board Space Camp Alumni Advancement Board
As I sit here having finally caught my breath from a wonderful whirlwind Alumni Weekend, I can’t help but reflect on the past 6 months and where we’ve been as a new “alumni movement.” While looking over my shoulder at the runway behind us, it’s hard to resist looking skyward with child-like excitement on what the future may hold in store.
We’ve accomplished much since late February when the Space Camp Alumni Advancement Board was formed and shortly thereafter the launch of the Space Camp Alumni Association. Right out of the gate this alumni community made their presence felt with a wonderful outpouring of support for the IndieGogo crowd funding campaign in support of the new Shuttle Training Aircraft exhibit in Shuttle Park. Over $70,000 in 60 days!
That’s truly amazing and my hat is off to the alumni community for banding together and playing a major role in that success – one that we’ll soon all enjoy as the STA makes the journey to Huntsville this Fall. As a follow-up project, the AAB and broader alumni community stepped up to help in so many ways – from bringing kids to camp via scholarships, to the preparations for Alumni Weekend, to a significant summer endeavor – providing staffing support to the Center and Camp to facilitate a large presence at EAA AirVenture 2014 in Oshkosh, WI.
Our goals have remained constant: to bring the alumni community together and to bring the Camp experience to more kids. While on the ground for the week at AirVenture, the AAB connected with every decade of Camp alumni including current NASA aviators, alumni who serve as active duty members of the Air Force, families and individuals from our campuses around the globe and even graduates from the week before! Onsite volunteers from the Alumni Association, included alumni from Aviation Challenge, Space Camp and Space Academy and the Honeywell Teachers Academy. We welcomed guests from EAA Young Eagles, Boys and Girls Club of America, ESA, NASA, U.S. Air Force, and Women in Aviation, to relive or experience the multi-axis trainer.
We even had one of the original teacher scholarship recipients visit us and tell her how meaningful the Christa McAuliffe Scholarship experience was for her, to this day, nearly a decade after her retirement from teaching. In the weeks leading up to and through the week in Oshkosh, “Team F-16” rose up from the alumni community to work on a restoration project at Aviation Challenge. The efforts of a vast community that included members of the AAB, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, and the Space Camp Hall of Fame as well as students from Tuskegee University, and several employees and interns from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center prepared the F-16 for it’s dedication to the storied Tuskegee Airmen. Which brings us to Alumni Weekend, which many of us were so fortunate to participate in this past weekend. This past weekend the Space Camp Hall of Fame inducted three new members to its ranks: Kaya Tuncer, founder of Space Camp Turkey, Michelle Ham, founder of Higher Orbits, and Samantha Cristoforetti, astronaut with the European Space Agency.
The AAB recognized several members of the community for their efforts to-date and the silent auction that night opened the doors for more kids to attend Camp this year. Most significantly, however, we were all able to gather at Aviation Challenge with dignitaries from State of Alabama and the Armed Forces for the dedication of the F-16 Red Tail to the Tuskegee Airmen. Seven of the surviving Tuskegee Airmen attended the event in person this weekend and stood proudly, sharing their stories with the several hundred of us in attendance.
It’s been quite a first 6 months! We’re learning as we go – and building out numerous initiatives and channels for all alumni to be involved and give back to the institution that we all hold so dear. I was touched and heartened this past weekend by the genuine passion and excitement expressed by so many in the alumni movement and the goals and outcomes we’ve envisioned for our future endeavors. Thanks extend to you all for your support, interest, and commitment to making a difference for current and future generations at Space Camp. Together, this community of 650,000+ can do remarkable things. I anxiously await the next steps in this awesome journey we’ve undertaken together. Ad astra per alas fideles, John Ramsey Chairman Space Camp Alumni Advancement Board
Welcome to EAA Airventure 2014! We’re here! This year the Space Camp Alumni community joined forces with Space Camp, Aviation Challenge, Space Camp Robotics, and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center to support a week-long experience at the World’s Greatest Aviation Celebration: EAA Airventure. Alumni have stopped in to visit us going all the way back to the first year of Space Camp to a few alumni from just last week! 
Claire popped in this morning for a spin on the MAT and to show off her homemade hat from her time at Space Academy this year! We presented her with her official Space Camp Alumni patch to add to her design. 
Lastly, we had the father of an alumni from the very first year Space Camp was hosted, this Auburn alumn burst with pride entering the Space Camp/Aviation Challenge/Robotics Camp space here in Oshkosh. Here, Alumni Board President John Ramsey presents him with his son’s official Alumni patch. Chip Yarbrough and Art Nicotera, though unable to join us onsite in Wisconsin, celebrated with their alumni colleagues on @SpaceCampAlumni: 
Alumni Board President, John Ramsey, was also interviewed about his experiences at Space Camp and we look forward to sharing that interview with you all later in the week. We’ve also been busy meeting up with our colleagues and alumni from Flying Magazine, NASA, ATK, and Boeing, and have no fear, we took pictures to share! We’re here all week running the MAT, flight sims, and…we are working toward taking some dronies with Ram Jet! Be sure to follow our adventures and fun out here in Oshkosh at #OSH14. 
What flight crew are you most interested in hearing from this week up in Oshkosh? Tweet us @SpaceCampAlumni.
Whether you’re a first-generation Space Camp graduate from the 1980s, or a new trainee about to attend one of the many fantastic programs at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center for the first time hoping to “peek under the curtain” – I’m glad you stopped by! SpaceCampAlumni.com is operated by the recently formed Space Camp Alumni Advancement Board as a place for all Space Camp alumni to call home. This site is all about YOU – one of more than 600,000 alumni that have earned their wings since 1982 – and this is a forum for you to reconnect with others whose lives were touched by Space Camp and share your own story of what life has been like “after camp.” While reconnecting with long lost camp buddies is great in and of itself, the even greater goal of the Space Camp Alumni Advancement Board, and this site, is to reconnect YOU with CAMP. On this site and the several other social media channels where you’ll also find our Space Camp Alumni community, we’ll be providing updates on what’s happening at camp and how your Camp Alumni colleagues are reengaging to help Space Camp, Aviation Challenge, and the new Robotics Camp realize their next renaissance. As a teen, Space Camp was the first time I truly felt like I could do anything, I was going to a place where people talked seriously about having careers flying faster than the speed of sound and leaving Earth for their dreams. Through my own kids, I see Camp leaving the same enduring mark. Together, we will build the community that sees that experience through the eyes of the next generation. Together, we will ensure the future of these programs, increasing access to Camp to our future aviators and space explorers around the globe and deepening the inspiration and connection for those who attend. We are making a commitment to you, as a member of the community, to keep you abreast of opportunities to get involved with Camp, and its related projects, so you can have a role in this growing movement as a Space Camp Alumni volunteer. I hope you’ll consider some form of engagement with the institution that left an indelible thumbprint on all who have passed through its doors. Ad astra per alas fideles! John Ramsey Chair Space Camp Alumni Advancement Board
John Ratnaswamy first attended Space Camp in 1993 (Adult Level I). He went with two friends, one who worked on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the other a computer scientist and science fiction author. They had a terrific time and reportedly were the first team in a simulated mission to land the Orbiter at Dakar, Senegal. John returned in 1994 and 1995. From 2005 to 2014, John and the three kids in the family, Alec, Julia, and Lily, collectively attended 8 Parent/Child (“P/C”) Space Camps and 2 P/C Aviation Challenge (“AC”) Camps (John and Lily). They’ve loved every one and met some famous astronauts, including Story Musgrave, Hoot Gibson, Bob Springer, and Don Thomas. They also met USAF Colonel Jill “Raggz” Long, amazing pilot and stunt pilot. Attending P/C Camp is a joy. For example, John and Lily loved being in the woods at night for survival training (“Blitzkrieg”) during P/C AC, and then making s’mores over a fire. Alec, Julia, and Lily are continuing at Camp. Alec has attended every year on his own since 2008, and focused on robotics. This led to his joining his high school’s robotics team, which qualified for the 2014 First Robotics World championships. Julia has attended very year on her own since 2011. Lily plans to attend next year. John has attended a Camp tweet-up where he learned how to scuba dive in the Underwater Astronaut Trainer.
Camp, most of all, has meant fun and joy to the family, but also to learning more about being a part of and leading teams.
Because their experiences at Camp have meant so much to them, they have contributed to Camp and to Camp scholarships. They hope others will get as much out of attending as they have.