Moonbuggy Race at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center The Fifteenth Annual Great Moonbuggy Race at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center (USSRC) was a tremendous success! This year's race, held Friday, April 4, 2008, through Saturday, April 5, 2008, drew high school and college students from across the state, nation, and globe. Despite rainy weather, a total of 44 teams (21 high school and 23 college) participated in this hands-on engineering competition, showcasing their real-world skills in science, math, and technology. Students in teams of two (one male and one female) raced across the simulated lunar surface toward the fastest time in the pack. In the end, of course, there could only be one winner from each division, and Erie High School from Erie, Kansas, and The University of Evansville from Evansville, Indiana, took the gold. An annual NASA event hosted by the USSRC, the Great Moonbuggy Race offers a high-energy burst of breathtaking excitement. We hope that you'll make plans now to join us for next year's competition! Coming Soon: Adult Alumni SPACE CAMP The USSRC will offer an Adult Alumni Camp this summer on the weekend of July 18-20, the same weekend of the Fifth Annual Saturn/Apollo Reunion and the Second Annual SPACE CAMP 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 http://www.spacecamp.com/reunionweekend/ or call our reservations department at 1-800-63-SPACE. When registering, please use the promotional code ALM25. The deadline for registration is May 16.

Alumni Spotlight Alexis Laleman has attended the SPACE CAMP, SPACE ACADEMY and AVIATION CHALLENGE programs five times as she has grown over the years. Alexis was introduced to the U.S. Space Program at the age of seven, and since then her greatest dream has been to become an astronaut. "If she could have," Alexis' mother explains, "she would have attended SPACE CAMP two or three times a year." During her Camp experiences, Alexis says that she most loved the interactive missions and the incorporation of learning with fun and adventure. "I enjoyed the teamwork and team building in all of the programs." she says. "I learned better how to communicate with others and how to work to accomplish a common goal." For Alexis, another exciting component of the program was time spent in the USSRC museum. She particularly enjoyed the "wall of astronauts" that further fueled her desire to one day be on that wall with them. "The museum, with the history it possesses, is a wonderful part of the SPACE CAMP experience," she recalls, "both the outside with all the rockets and missiles, and the inside with the lunar lander and rover…all the different pieces of information within the museum are invaluable." After applying the lessons learned at SPACE CAMP to her real-life experiences and working tirelessly throughout her high school career, Alexis will finally be graduating on June 1, 2008. Tailoring her course work over the years to pursue a degree in aerospace engineering, she intends to specialize in astronautical engineering. Ultimately, Alexis would like to work with NASA and pursue her dream of becoming an astronaut. Alexis has been offered an appointment to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and she plans to begin her Air Force career on June 25, 2008. "She is a remarkable young woman who has grown up with a dream and has worked towards it every day," her mother says. "Now she is taking her first big step towards accomplishing it. I'm so glad that SPACE CAMP has been part of that dream." If you have a SPACE CAMP alumnus you would like to spotlight in a future newsletter, please e-mail holleyg@spacecamp.com.

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