[adult] Space Camp

The thing you have to know is that I married a nerd. The Star Wars loving (but only the original trilogy), classic rock aficionado, who grew up loving space. When he was little he went to space camp in Florida, and when I was trying to think of something fun and different to do for his 30th birthday (especially since the big 3-0 wasn’t something he was looking forward to), adult space camp seemed like the perfect gift.

Now in Huntsville, Alabama, Adult Space Camp is a legit thing (I promise). Looking back, it was like Disney for lovers of outer space, rockets, and astronauts. It was actually really impressive considering it’s not well known, and the fact that I was going into it expecting it to be juvenile (meaning just for little kids).

Three days long, the program cost about $500 per person, plus airfare. The program cost covered the activities and lodging in their bunks (which I’d only suggest for kids; there’s a small add-on fee to stay at the hotel across the parking lot) and meals.

When we first arrived, it was clear we had made it – everything was on brand, even down to the trash cans. There’s a big gift shop attached to a small museum and the main building for the camp program.

The most important thing I can tell parents of kids attending or adults looking to attend – the food was pretty typical cafeteria food (it really wasn’t bad), and they sold alcohol (but they made it 100% clear that they could kick you out of the program for being drunk; they simultaneously ran adult and kid programs, so it made sense).

To kill some time before the program kicked off, we walked around the Rocket Park that was littered with old rockets, engines, and so much more. Reading about this stuff, it’s hard to wrap your head around the scale of these items, so seeing them in-person was pretty wild.

Let’s start Space Camp!

Live Simulations

One of the coolest parts of space camp was doing live simulations. They have life size replicas of the International Space Station (ISS), and we ran through simulations of repairing the ISS, acting as Mission Control, and running experiments on “Mars.” The Manfriend got the best job – being the astronaut who had to make repairs on the ISS.

The best part of space camp was going in machine that mimicked the centripetal force and 1/8 gravity. It was harder than it looked!

We had breakfast with real rocket scientists who worked on Apollo, Mercury, and other launches. Now retired, they do this as a volunteer gig to chat with kids and adults alike about helping to get man to space!

The museum had a real Moon Buggie!

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center (where Space Camp is hosted) campus also has an authentic Saturn V rocket (one of only 3 in the world) with larger exhibits on the history of space exploration and a piece of the moon.

One of the activities that was fun (and made us feel like kids again) was doing a rocket launch. The Manfriend claims his rocket went the furthest, but we all know who won 🙂