United States Space Camp
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The Space Camp Habitat, at left, houses campers staying multiple days. Campers enter through the red gate.
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 United States Space Camp
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| Location | Huntsville, Alabama, U.S. |
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| Coordinates | 34°42′41″N 86°39′15″W / 34.71139°N 86.65417°WCoordinates: 34°42′41″N 86°39′15″W / 34.71139°N 86.65417°W |
| Opening date | 1982 |
| Management | U.S. Space & Rocket Center |
| Website | http://www.spacecamp.com/ |
U.S. Space Camp is a camp and related programs owned and operated by the Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission's U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The camp provides residential and day camp educational programs for children and adults. These programs include space oriented camp programs, aircraft themed Aviation Challenge camps, and robotics themed programs, which are designed to promote science, engineering, aviation and technology.
Space Camp was founded in 1982 as an educational camp program for children using the United States space program as the basis to promote math and science to children. The idea for the camp came about as a result of a discussion between Wernher von Braun and Edward O. Buckbee. von Braun was touring the U.S. Space & Rocket Center with Buckbee in 1977 when he noticed children studying rockets and making notes. According to Buckbee, von Braun commented, "You know, we have all these camps for youngsters in this country - band camps and cheerleader camps and football camps. Why don't we have a science camp?"
Summer 2007 was the 25th Anniversary of Space Camp and the related programs. The 500,000th camper, Samantha Rice, graduated June 15, 2007. The U.S. Space & Rocket Center added to the museum the Space Camp Hall of Fame, in which the first inductee was Wernher von Braun.
The U.S. Space & Rocket Center and Space Camp (formerly U.S. Space Camp) in Huntsville are operated by the Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission, which is a state agency whose members are appointed by the Governor of Alabama.
The non-profit U.S. Space & Rocket Center Foundation is a separate entity and members of its board are not appointed by the governor. It is responsible for scholarship fund-raising and the licensing of camps outside the United States. There are a number of internationally licensed Space Camps, including Space Camp Turkey, Space Camp Canada (known as "Camp Spatial" in French), and Space Camp Belgium. In 2011 the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Foundation planned to license additional camps in Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, India, and Malaysia.
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