This One Time, At Space Camp...

Moonwalkers

If all goes as planned, the space shuttle Atlantis will lift off for the last time Friday morning, marking the end of NASA’s 30-year-old shuttle program. But despairing space enthusiasts can take solace in the fact that another venerable space program is still going strong. That program is Space Camp, founded in 1982. The following photos were all taken during the first four years of the Huntsville, Ala.-based camp.

The camp, which opened its doors a year after NASA’s inaugural shuttle launch, has provided succor to more than half a million space geeks over the decades, and counts several current astronauts—and Chelsea Clinton—among its alumni. Here, campers simulate a moonwalk, as though they felt only one-sixth the gravity of Earth. In the background is Rocket Park, the historical rocket display behind the museum.
Photograph courtesy Space Camp.
Fasten Your Seatbelt

German-born rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, who led the development of the Saturn V that launched Apollo 11 into space, provided the original inspiration for a space-themed camp. Motivated by Von Braun’s desire to encourage and teach young science and space enthusiasts, the former CEO of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center museum, Edward Buckbee, launched Space Camp six years after Von Braun died. Here, a camper is strapped into a replica of the jet-backpack that allowed astronauts to maneuver through space if they were floating outside a shuttle or space station.

Photograph courtesy Space Camp.
Design Your Own Space Station

Most campers spend the first part of camp training and preparing for simulated missions at the end of the week, explains Michael Flachbart, the vice president of operations at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center and a 1986 Space Camp alum.

Here, campers use basic computer programs to design their own space station.

Photograph courtesy Space Camp.
A Big Rocket

A group of campers gather in Rocket Park to behold the Mercury Redstone Rocket that launched Alan Shepard into space in 1961.

Photograph courtesy Space Camp.
Propellers Abhor a Vacuum

In this experiment, which is still used today, students discover why astronauts can’t use a traditional propeller to maneuver in space. The bell jar contains an electric motor that spins a propeller. When campers press a button, they send a jolt of electricity to the propeller, which starts spinning in a circle. Then, they push a different button to suck the air from the chamber. This creates a vacuum, like in space, and causes the propeller to stop since it requires air to create a pressure difference with the blades.

Photograph courtesy Space Camp.
Point That Away From Me

Campers build and launch the slender green rockets on either side of the space shuttle model. If they built their rockets correctly, a parachute would pop out at about 500 to 700 feet in the air, allowing the rocket to float safely back to earth.

Photograph courtesy Space Camp.
Suiting Up

Younger campers try on 50-pound spacesuits so they can experience how the heavy suit restricts their movements. (A real space suit can weigh several hundred pounds on earth with the cumbersome oxygen supply and breathing mechanism attached. But in space, it’s virtually weightless.)

Photograph courtesy Space Camp.
Ready for Liftoff

The final mission of space camp is to execute a shuttle launch. It’s a team effort. The luckiest campers get to work here, in the Discovery space shuttle cockpit simulator.

Photograph courtesy Space Camp.
Mission Control

The campers working at Mission Control during the mock launch are tasked with checking the engines, cabin pressure, and oxygen and nitrogen levels inside the cabin.

Photograph courtesy Space Camp.
The Training Floor

At center, a girl in a space suit floats in the air using the Five Degrees of Freedom Simulator, or 5DF. The black pads around her release air, which lifts her off the ground. Above her, another camper sits at the end of a hydraulic arm like that on the real shuttles.

Photograph courtesy Space Camp.
Roger That

This camper was assigned to the shuttle cockpit, behind the commander and the pilot. Occasionally, Space Camp officials interrupt the serious work of the trainees for pressing, earthly matters. “We were in the middle of our mission when suddenly the counselor made an announcement over the headphones,” camper Tony Foiani recalled to Boys Life magazine in 1986. “ ‘This mission is called off,’ he said, ‘on account of pizza.’ ”

Photograph courtesy Space Camp.
Blast Off

This upgraded cockpit, used from 1985 to 1986, was featured in the movie Space Camp, filmed in 1985 and released in 1986.

Photograph courtesy Space Camp.
Chair Force Two

In a 1987 visit to NASA’s nearby Marshall Space Flight Center, then Vice President George H.W. Bush stopped by space camp to be strapped into the man-maneuvering unit simulator. Bush is floating on a cushion of air (to simulate the frictionless environment of outer space) and using joysticks to propel himself around the floor. Space Camp administrator Michael Flachbart, then a counselor, is behind Bush.

Photograph courtesy Space Camp.