Author: Diana Hughes

Lots of exciting news ahead this year at Space Camp!

The new Boeing Space Camp Operations Center has officially gone vertical, and steel beams have begun to be placed to form the core structure of the new building. The skyline of Space Camp will look very different coming summer 2022 and the building is slated to be completed in Spring 2023.

Trainees are gearing up to come to camp once again in 2022, and some of the summer week-long programs are already sold out. Most levels of Space Camp and U.S. Cyber Camp are completely full, with Aviation Challenge also rapidly filling up. It is looking like it will be a great year for campers, with additions and improvements, like the helo dunker that was donated in 2021 by a donor in Canada.

It also will mark the 40th anniversary of Space Camp in 2022, trainees and alumni will get a chance to celebrate in June 2022 throughout the whole anniversary week. More information to come on this next big milestone of Space Camp!

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:

Margrit von Braun is an environmental engineer specializing in hazardous waste management and risk assessment. Her father was Dr. Wernher von Braun, the first director of the Marshall Space Flight Center and led the development of the Saturn V rocket that sent the Apollo astronauts to the moon.

Margrit was one of the first women to join the University of Idaho College of Engineering faculty in 1980, and served as their Dean of the College of Graduate Studies. She founded an environmental engineering company with her husband that focused on remediation of hazardous waste sites, and in retirement, they started an international non-profit to assist communities in poor countries reduce environmental exposures and chemical disease.

Join us on the latest ‘Dare to Explore’ podcast episode to hear more of her first hand account of growing up during the space race, how Wernher von Braun conducted business, and what inspired her to explore the career field of environmental engineering.

With over one million Space Camp Alumni in the world, the alumni of Space Camp programs have gone on to work in a diverse set of career fields with incredibly unique specialties and talents. Space Camp opened in 1982 and captured the attention of many children looking to find a place to increase their knowledge about space exploration and science. What they also found during their time in Huntsville was a network of like-minded individuals that looked to the stars with wonder and curiosity. These connections forged at Space Camp would create lifelong friendships and connections.  

Space Camp Alumni then went on to leave their mark in the world in many ways. 

Alumni that have participated in a Space Camp program, the flagship Space Camp program, Aviation Challenge, U.S. Cyber Camp, or Robotics Camp, all gain skills in leadership and teamwork as a part of the programming.  

As one would anticipate, there have even been several future astronauts that walked through the doors at Space Camp. Astronauts like Christina Koch, Kate Rubins, and Samantha Cristoforetti all are Space Camp alumna and spent time aboard the International Space Station.  

Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger was the first Space Camp alumna to go into space aboard STS-131 in April 2010, and recent additions to the newest astronaut class, Jasmin Moghbeli and Bob Hines, both attended Space Camp programs in their youth.  

Alumni like Major John Hecker and Loretta Whitesides were inspired to take to the skies, but in different ways. Major Hecker served as a part of the United States Navy and was a Blue Angel pilot, now retired from the military he flies a cargo plane for UPS. Loretta Hildalgo-Whitesides found inspiration in commercial space and inspiring others to enjoy space as well! She is the founder of the popular international event, Yuri’s Night, that celebrates space around the world on Yuri Gagarin’s birthday. She also is an author, and “Founder Astronaut” at Virgin Galactic. Aspiring someday to travel to the edge of space herself.  

Commercial space has seen somewhat of a renaissance lately and Space Camp Alumni have taken part there too. 

Just this summer both Wally Funk, Space Camp alumna and Hall of Fame member, flew aboard the Blue Origin first crewed commercial flight with Jeff Bezos. A week earlier Beth Moses, another Space Camp alumna and Hall of Fame member, flew with Virgin Galactic and Richard Branson to the edge of space.  

Our most recent alumni to go into space just launched in September 2021, aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon that would take the Inspiration4 crew to orbit the Earth for 3 days. Onboard, both Jared Issacman, benefactor and Commander of the crew, and Chris Sembroski, Philanthropic Crew Member, are both Space Camp alumni. Jared attended Aviation Challenge in his youth and Chris was a Space Camp counselor at the Florida location in the 1990s. They are making history along with their other crew members, Hailey Arceneaux and Sian Proctor, as becoming the first all-civilian crew to launch to space. 

One could say, you can find a Space Camp alumni about anywhere you look!  

While all of those alumni are working roles on the forefront of space, there are many amazing Space Camp alumni that used the confidence and leadership skills they gained at Space Camp to go on to equally amazing roles in other fields.  

Stephanie Abrams, best known for her role as metrologist on the Weather Channel, is a Space Camp alumna and was inducted into the Space Camp Hall of Fame in 2012. Stephanie has a passion to inspire youth to go into STEM related careers and reaches her audience on social media with interesting facts and stories about weather.  

Some alumni have even gone on to become rockstars! Casey Harris is a keyboardist in the band, X Ambassadors. An attendee of SCIVIS in 2000 and 2001, he credits his time at Aviation Challenge as “one of the most formative experiences” of his life, as a lifelong aviation and space enthusiast.  

Many alumni credit their time at Space Camp for giving them the spark of inspiration or confidence to pursue a STEM career and it is amazing to hear the stories of how their time at Space Camp shaped their view of the future. As an experience that encourages teamwork, leadership, and creates lifelong memories, more extraordinary alumni are sure to become a part of the Space Camp alumni family each year. 

Space Camp week-long program sessions will resume in summer 2022 and booking is now open for next season. 

Current Space Camp alumni can connect and find out more information about AlumniFest by joining the Space Camp Alumni Facebook group or visiting SpaceCampAlumni.com.