United States Space Camp

U.S. Space Camp is a camp and related programs owned and operated by the Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission' s U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville Alabama. The camp provides residential and day camp educational programs for children and adults. These programs include space oriented camp programs aircraft themed Aviation Challenge camps and robotics themed programs which are designed to promote science engineering aviation and technology.HistorySpace Camp was founded in 1982 as an educational camp program for children using the United States space program as the basis to promote math and science to children. The idea for the camp came about as a result of a discussion between Wernher von Braun and Edward O. Buckbee. von Braun was touring the U.S. Space & Rocket Center with Buckbee in 1977 when he noticed children studying rockets and making notes. According to Buckbee von Braun commented " You know we have all these camps for youngsters in this country - band camps and cheerleader camps and football camps. Why don' t we have a science camp?" Summer 2007 was the 25th Anniversary of Space Camp and the related programs. The 500 000th camper Samantha Rice graduated June 15 2007. The U.S. Space & Rocket Center added to the museum the Space Camp Hall of Fame in which the first inductee was Wernher von Braun.U.S. Space & Rocket Center FoundationThe U.S. Space & Rocket Center and Space Camp (formerly U.S. Space Camp) in Huntsville are operated by the Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission which is a state agency whose members are appointed by the Governor of Alabama.