shirt.woot.com has a shirt today feature Snoopy on top of his doghouse in a Space Shuttle that says “Space Camp 1982” in a NASA worm-logo font.
Is it authorized? Certainly not! Is it neat? Absolutely!
This is not the first time shirt.woot has a shirt referencing Space Camp! Back in May of 2016 they had one as well.
20 years!
It seems like just yesterday I was celebrating 10 years!
How time flies.
Ten years ago, I said “It’s important that we stay engaged with Space Camp through the good times and the bad. Space Camp’s most difficult challenges likely still lie ahead.”
I didn’t realize how true that would be. At the time, my biggest concern leading me to that thought was the retirement of the Space Shuttle. But Space Camp has handled that transition reasonably well.
Obviously, the biggest challenge for Space Camp in the intervening decade is one that is challenging the entire world.
Thanks to thousands of generous donations, Space Camp has been able to weather the COVID-19 storm thus far. Let us hope for a speedy return to normalcy soon! And they’re not out of the woods yet, so please consider giving if you haven’t yet and are in a position to do so.
Regardless, I’ll be around! Thank you so much to everyone who has supported this site over the years by reading and even participating in the HabForum. I’m definitely behind in both reporting and updating the HabFiles section, but please stick around! I will get to it!
It continues to be a privilege. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Vincent Vazzo
As mentioned in yesterday’s post, Blue Origin–more specifically Club for Future, Blue Origin’s nonprofit to promote STEM careers–showed a video of their tour of Space Camp during Blue’s NS-14 launch coverage.
They have posted the video of the tour separately to their YouTube channel now:
During Blue Origin’s broadcast of their launch efforts today, Blue showed a segment shot at Space Camp!
At the end of the tour, they mentioned that a set of Space Camp wings were attached to the flight suit of their astronaut stand-in, Mannequin Skywalker.
The live stream of their New Shepard Mission NS-14 can be viewed live.
Good luck, Blue!
Update: The launch was a resounding success, and a photo of the wings has been tweeted out:
The annual Summerfest celebration and corresponding Space Camp Hall of Fame sadly had to be canceled this year due to the coronavirus.
To make up for that, and to raise badly needed funds for Space Camp, the Space Camp Alumni Foundation is hosting the Space Camp Alumni Virtualfest throughout the day today!
The highlight will be the continuation of the annual town hall / state of the union. That streams starting at 5pm Central. Mark your calendars!
Other highlights throughout the day include a live STEM discussion with Shuttle Astronaut, Mike Mullane, and his son, Executive Director of Harvard Business School Online, Patrick Mullane, and a live Space Bowl Trivia game!
To get in on today’s activities, you can head on over to the Space Camp Alumni Facebook page, or their YouTube channel.
While you’re enjoying today’s activities, please consider donating to help strengthen a badly weakened Space Camp!
Space Camp needs $1.5 million dollars within the next three months or it might cease to exist.
That’s the message that was delivered by Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission chairman John Nerger this past Tuesday in a press conference to kick off the launch of SaveSpaceCamp.com, Space Camp’s GoFundMe campaign.
Like many museums around the world, COVID-19 has devastated the Space & Rocket Center’s finances. Like an estimated one-third of museums in the United States, they might not survive.
But hope is far from lost! In just two days, over a half-million dollars has been raised! That’s an amazing campaign launch!
This still leaves ONE MILLION DOLLARS left to raise though. No easy feat, to be sure. But if every Space Camp, Space Academy, and Aviation Challenge alum donated a dollar, we could get there!
COVID-19 has hit a lot of people on this planet really, really hard. If you are one of the lucky ones to be going through this realtively unscathed, please consider donating. Save Space Camp.
What was supposed to be a ceremonious 30th anniversary year at Aviation Challenge has instead turned to one of sorrow.
All Aviation Challenge Sessions have been cancelled for 2020.
This will be the first summer since 1989 not to see any Aviation Challenge sessions.
The U.S. Space & Rocket Center opened to members this morning for the first time in nearly three months.
Despite the dreary weather and light showers, a number of people were in line at 10am sharp!
There was quite a bit of cleaning going on. Employees were all wearing masks and generally practicing good social distancing amongst themselves. It’s clear the Space & Rocket Center is taking cleanliness seriously.
Though the center is officially open once again, it’s only open in part. In the Davidson Center, The Saturn V Hall is open, but the National Geographic Theater remains closed.
In the main museum area, only the center atrium is open. Every other facility from the Training Center Floor/MCC to the main gift shop and planetarium are currently closed.
There’s still enough to see to justify the currently discounted $13 admission price. Ultimately a slow, conservative approach to reopening is probably the right answer. Having been hit tremendously hard by the shutdown, I doubt the Space Center could afford to stay closed much longer.
It was wonderful to be able to go back to the Space Center and visit for a morning. It’s a nice bit of normalcy returned. Let’s hope it can stay that way and that the Space Center and the rest of the country can safely continue to reopen.
It has been some time since I have updated the HabFiles section of this website.
I haven’t stopped collecting artifacts from Space Camp’s past, but I’ve been woefully inept at sharing them!
That is a trend I hope to reverse starting today!
I recently got hold of a 1983 Space Camp Application Guide and I couldn’t wait to share!
Alas, the application itself was cut from the guide, but everything else is in tact, including the week’s schedule, camp dates for 1983, and pricing information–$250 in 1983!
I don’t know if Space Camp ever produced a guide for 1982. That might very well make this Space Camp’s oldest program guide! It’s certainly the oldest thing from Space Camp in my collection!
I hope you enjoy looking at this as much as I have!
As The U.S. Space & Rocket Center prepares to open its doors at the end of the week, they have sent out an email and updated their website to provide additional information about the reopening process.
Highlights:
The Space Center will be open on Friday for members only and will open to the general public beginning on Saturday, May 30th.
