June, 2008    



 


SPACE CAMP Barbie® is here!

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center (USSRC) is thrilled to welcome the newest members to our SPACE CAMP family - Barbie®, Nikki®, and Teresa®. For over 25 years, SPACE CAMP has been using the excitement of space exploration to educate students in science, technology, math, and engineering (STEM) concepts, and now three new trainees will gain this educational experience of a lifetime!

The new SPACE CAMP Barbie® will soon be available for purchase for $29.95 at the USSRC gift shop. These Silver Label, limited-edition dolls have been updated to showcase a more modern version of the original 1990s SPACE CAMP Barbie, along with all her accessories, including an astronaut helmet, jacket, and SPACE CAMP graduation certificate. Pink, youth- and adult-size Barbie t-shirts and duffle bags are also available for purchase. The USSRC is currently taking pre-sale orders for the dolls online at www.spacecamp.com/landing/barbie. These orders will ship August 1st. Only 50,000 of these are being released nationwide, so reserve your SPACE CAMP Barbie today!

Don't Miss the Dark Knight

Beginning Friday, July 18, the IMAX Theater at the USSRC will be hosting a new, feature length film entitled The Dark Knight. This chapter in the Batman series features the caped crusader at his most daring, as he sets out to destroy crime in Gotham City for good. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman finds himself battling a new criminal mastermind in the Gotham underworld known as the Joker. Join Batman and his friends in this exciting adventure, which features six sequences filmed entirely in IMAX, marking the first time ever that a feature film has been shot using IMAX cameras.

A special, midnight showing of the film will be held at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, July 18. Pre-sale tickets are available for $10/adults and $9/child on our Web site. VIP tickets, which include special, top-tier seating in the IMAX Theater, a $4.50 concession voucher, immediate seating in the IMAX VIP section, and a limited-edition souvenir ticket stub, are also available for $14. For show times and ticket options, visit www.spacecamp.com and click on "Museum and Movies."

Adult Alumni SPACE CAMP: Now Taking Reservations

The USSRC will offer an Adult Alumni Camp this summer on the weekend of July 18-20, the same weekend of the Saturn/Apollo Reunion and Hall of Fame Dinner. All adult alumni are invited to attend. Pricing for the camp is $499 per person and includes housing in the habitat, luncheon with an astronaut, and access to both the Reunion and the Hall of Fame Dinner. If you prefer to arrange for your own housing, the off-site housing price for the camp is $449.

Registration for the Alumni Camp will be Friday, July 18, 2008, from 11:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon. Graduation will be held Sunday, July 20, 2008, at 11:00 a.m.

For more information about this program, or to register, please visit www.spacecamp.com or call our reservations department at 1-800-63-SPACE. When registering, please use the promotional code ALM25.

The deadline for registration is July 4.



Reunion Weekend at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center

The USSRC is excited about a special Reunion Weekend this summer on Friday, July 18, 2008, through Saturday, July 19, 2008, which includes the Fifth Annual Saturn/Apollo Reunion and the Second Annual SPACE CAMP Hall of Fame Dinner. Both events will be held in the Davidson Center for Space Exploration, creating a huge weekend celebration for the original Saturn V team members and our SPACE CAMP alumni.

The Reunion, presented by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne on Friday, July 18, will be a casual party with barbecue and all the fixings, featuring a brief program inside the Davidson Center under the Saturn V rocket. The Reunion will allow those retired members of the Saturn and Apollo teams to reminisce and see old friends from years gone by. Special guests confirmed to date include Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson (renowned astrophysicist, author, and Director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City) and Paul Calle (original member of the NASA Fine Art Program).

There will be a number of special activities during the day on Saturday, July 19.Tentatively planned are artist print signings, including Paul Calle and Cynthia Parsons, a local watercolor artist who has painted many scenes of our campus, plus a meet-the-author book signing session. Austin Boyd, author of the Mars Hill Classified trilogy, is confirmed as well.

On that Saturday evening, the USSRC will hold the Hall of Fame Dinner, presented by ATK Launch Systems. We started the Hall of Fame last year on the 25th anniversary of SPACE CAMP as a way of recognizing outstanding alumni, and this year we will induct six new members into the 2008 class. In a more formal setting, Hall of Fame guests will dine at white-clothed tables beneath the Saturn V. There will be a number of honorary guests attending, including NASA astronauts Jim Halsell and Robert "Hoot" Gibson.

Individual ticket prices for the Reunion are $10 for adults and $5 for children (after June 30th, $15 for adults and $10 for children). Tickets for the Hall of Fame Dinner are $40 each. To purchase tickets, or for more information about these annual events, please visit www.spacecamp.com/reunionweekend. Make plans now to attend this fun-filled weekend celebration!

Sponsors for the Second Annual SPACE CAMP Hall of Fame Dinner include:

  • ATK Launch Systems
  • Available Plastics, Inc.
  • Ball Aerospace
  • COLSA Corporation
  • Cook's Pest Control
  • Digital Fusion Solutions, Inc.
  • Dorothy and Julian Davidson
  • Halsey Foodservice
  • Huntsville Coca-Cola Bottling Company
  • Huntsville Marriott
  • Huntsville/Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau
  • ITT-CAS
  • J.F. Drake State Technical College
  • Maynard Cooper & Gale, PC
  • Media Fusion
  • Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
  • Redstone Federal Credit Union
  • SAIC
  • Turner Universal
  • United Space Alliance
  • Von Braun Center
  • Lockheed Martin
  • Courtyard Marriott
  • Huntsville City Schools ETV


Restoring Pathfinder

Pathfinder, the Space Shuttle mockup located in the USSRC's Rocket Park, is currently undergoing a face lift - literally - after a piece of its floor section near the nose separated from the body of the shuttle earlier this month. During the night in early June, Pathfinder's "belly pan" dropped from a mounting bracket and was resting on its external fuel tank the next morning. Rain apparently leaked into the area, much of which consists of plywood and fiberglass, and corroded the flooring, detaching the section under the nose. Since then, the damaged area has been cleaned up and soon will be restored using more reliable materials.

2008 Hall of Fame Inductees

This year's SPACE CAMP Hall of Fame inductees were chosen from a group of over forty nominees in three different categories - Friend of SPACE CAMP, Former Employee, and Former Camper. After careful deliberation by the Hall of Fame Selection Committee, the following individuals were chosen for the 2008 class:
  • Friend of SPACE CAMP
    • Oscar Holderer - Huntsville, AL
    • Marlenn Maicki - Bloomfield, MI
  • Former Employee
    • Lisa DeVries - Cocoa, FL
  • Former Camper
    • Captain Phillip Smith - Seymour Johnson AFB, NC
    • Vincent Vazzo - Huntsville, AL
    • Spc. Josh Whitfield - California

Congratulations to these six deserving inductees!

Huntsville's own Oscar Holderer (left)
and Vincent Vazzo (right)

For suggestions, questions, or comments about this or any Alumni Newsletter, please email us at alumni@spacecamp.com.

 

1-800-63 SPACE · www.spacecamp.com/alumni
U.S. Space & Rocket Center, One Tranquility Base, Huntsville, AL 35805