Take Up Space: A Journey at Adult Space Camp

By Ryn Delpapa

Adult Space Camp is where you return to being a kid while playing with all things science, space and exploration. Like many, when the James Webb spectroscopic data was released and the stunning photos revealed an exquisiteness that my eyes had never seen, I looked up.

I began to look to the stars and space with hope inspired by the ingenuity, creativity and shared efforts for a collective interplanetary future. My curiosity expanded from imagining and researching glittering galaxies to exploring Rocket City.

Huntsville, Alabama, was nicknamed “Rocket City” in the late 1950s due to its association with space missions. The Rocket Park at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center is a testament to that legacy.

For adults and kids alike, it’s also where your unrelenting curiosity for space can be unleashed.

Our Crew Leader instructed us to put away our adult hats and embrace three days of space mission reenactments, building miniature rockets and developing a lean, fire-resistant space shuttle material to safely launch a fragile entity into space: a hardboiled egg.

Our space team included retirees visiting for a birthday trip, firefighters, psychologists, software engineers on a weekend away from family and artists like myself. Our diverse experiences and life moments all coincided that weekend in our shared curiosity.

During those three days and two nights, we each had a moment to create and launch our own rocket. Behind a plexiglass wall, you’d push the button, sparking your rocket’s fuse to lift off into the offsite park’s grass for a soft landing and retrieval. My rocket was never found, but somewhere in those tree branches is one named Zenith.

If your aspirations go beyond rockets, you might be lucky enough to participate in an Extravehicular Activity (EVA) where you repair the exterior of your space shuttle. It felt surreal to put on a suit and experiment with the absence of gravity.

When we talk about curiosity, the journey of our pursuit is worthy of being honored, for it leads us on new paths. It can reignite childhood dreams you dismissed as implausible, inspire conversations that yield discoveries, and reframe your outlook as diverse perspectives open your awareness to new beginnings.

Curiosity unfolding is a way of honoring your life’s journey with the eagerness of possibility and a mindset of learning that sparks hope. Whether your curiosity has led you to space or simply reading this article, do something that honors the creative ways curiosity appears in your life.

Don’t miss out on your chance to explore your own curiosity at Space Camp!