The HabForum

What started the dream of space camp for you all? Personally i saw it on nick news many years ago when i was about 4 and i guess it just stuck with me. How old were you when you heard about it and how did you hear about it?

I cant remember exacly when or how old I was. I was always interested in space and aviation but I think I was in 2nd grade when my science teacher saw that my interest in space was intense and told me about camp and basically inspired me to be whatever i wanted to be.

Well ive told the story before i guess i can tell it again. The forst time i ever heard of space camp was in 1986 when i went to see Space Camp the movie in the theater. I remember seeing at the end it said that it was filmed on location at space camp in alabama. Well at the time i really didnt think much of it. I was only 6 years old and all the kids in the movie were much older than i was so i figured it would be a long time before id have a chance to go. Sometime in 1989 i visited the NASA Langley Visitor center with my grandmother. This was one of many visits i loved that place so muh and went every chance i got. Well we were looking in the gift shop and they had a toddler flight suit for sale. Ofcourse as soon as i saw it i wanted my own flight suit i mean this is what the astronauts wore afterall. Well we asked the lady at the counter if their was anywhere we could get one for an older child. She gave us the number for calling space camp. We did and they sent us a program brochure and a space gear catalog. Yes they use to send you a catalog of space camp merchandise unfortunately they no longer produce the catalogs. Well we got it and i got my flight suit that christmas my first of 2. But looking through the 1989 brochure i saw that they had a program for kids slightly older than me. I started making plans to go in 1990 the first year i was eligible. Unfortunately my grades were low that year and my dad wouldnt let me but the christmas of 1990 i got a package confirming i would be going to space camp in July 91 which i did. Then ended up going back 3 more times over the next 7 years.

Jerry do you remember the little space capsules and lunar rovers that were cardboard and McDonalds passed them out???? I used to play with those for hours does anybody else remember them???

I remeber them they were among my many space toys and colectables over the years. I had alot of NASA toys from die cast space shuttles to a cardboard space capsule i could play in to a space suit and nasa walkie talkies among other things.

Space Nerd wrote:Jerry do you remember the little space capsules and lunar rovers that were cardboard and McDonalds passed them out???? I used to play with those for hours does anybody else remember them???

Yeah i definately remember the lunar rovers they were so cool!

Wow i though nobody would remember those lol i played with mine till it jsut couldnt be fixed anymore. And i remember my mom helping me make a shuttle out of tinker toys lol.

I on;y had the space capsule from mcdonalds. As for the tinker toys i remember starting to be what was going to be a huge launch pad for one of my yoy shuttles many years ago. Unfortunately other thinga happened and it was never finished and eventually dissasembled and i never got back to building it. I wasnt using tinker toys though i was using constructs a building toy i havent seen on the market in many years.

I had known about Space Camp for quite some time prior (I would almost like to say I was born with an inherent knowledge for it ), but it was not until I was in 5th grade that I really considered going (or even knew enough about Space Camp to know that I could go, really).

The summer prior to 5th grade, my 3rd grade teacher Ms. Collopy (so there's a small chance I misspelled that, but regardless...) had gone through the educator program. So one day sometime during the year, she gave a presentation to the class about her experience there. She just happened to have had the number (1-800-63-SPACE ...I've had that thing memorized since 5th grade!) to call to get info about the camps...I called and got a brochure...when my parents asked what I wanted for my birthday that year, I almost didn't even bother to mention Space Camp to them, as it was, even then, quite expensive...but they got the info at of me (though I can't recall, I doubt it was much of a struggle for them to get me to tell them)...the rest, as they say, is pretty much history!

Before i went to space camp the first time i had never met anyone who had been. Since i went to space camp though i run into them all the time. I have several other friends who have also gone that i have just happened to meet over the years.

You're very lucky! Over the course of any given day, I very rarely run into people that have also gone to camp (hence this site).

I run into them all the time especially when i wear one of my tshirts. I also guess its an advantage of working at a space museum but i've even run into a few at boy scout camp.

Well, unlike most of you, i had no itricate knowledge of space camp or anything. I started in fifth grade like Vince, but my intrest was in being an astronaut. My parents thought it was a phase that would pass (10 years later i am still going strong) and waited a couple years to see if it would pass. THen as I got more serious I considered going to this place called space camp. At this point my parent figured it was usless to fight it so they gave me the trip as a christmas gift.

Well i was working at the local space museum today. I met a guyy middle aged who had a real intrest in space. He wanted to really fly in space but i told him about space camp and within 2 minutes he decided he'd go.

(jumping in late, sorry, been busy)

I had first heard about Space Camp from the movie. My parents ordered the 1988 application guide and were going to send me between my 5th and 6th grade years (I couldn't stop talking about it all through my 5th grade year). Unfortunately, it never happened. They though I was too young to really appreciate the experience (and I broke my ankle too).

The following year, 1989, I'd seen a kid in one of my 6th grade classes wearing his Flight Suit for halloween and by that summer (between my 6th and 7th grade years) I went to Space Camp. It has been a part of me ever since.

I remember wearing my first space camp flight suit to school in 4th grade for a biography book report i had to do. I did mine on a book about John Glenn and we had to dress up like the person we did the report on so i wore my space camp flight suit.

I can't fit in it now, but do you know I only wore it once or twice? I wore it a day or two at Space Camp (it was hot so I never did that again) and only one day for Academy.

I still have it, though I'll never fit in the thing now. (hehehe).

I'll have to get me a new one next year.

Well i got a look at one of the new dark blue flight suits today. They look great but i saw one major disadvantage for the guys. The front only has 1 main zipper instaed of 2. For girls thats no big deal but it makes it hard for guys to use the rest room because they have to unzip the whole thing now instead of just pulling up the second zipper some.

I guess you better not be in a hurry when you have that suit on

True being in a hurry would be a bad thing in that suit.