Popular comedy and satire news site The Onion just published a Space Camp related news story today!

Click on the headline below to see it!

Aviation Challenge alumnus Jared Isaacman has been nominated by President-Elect Donald Trump to be the next Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration!

The announcement came today as Mr. Isaacman posted the following to his X account:

Isaacman, founder of the payment platform Shift4, rose to prominence as the commander of the Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn missions. It is during the latter mission that he became the first private Astronaut to perform an EVA.

Congratulations, Jared!

It’s been quite a few years in the making, but today’s the day!

Pathfinder is being hoisted back onto the stack in Shuttle Park!

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center is live streaming the lift today!

EDIT: According to the schedule, the actual lift won’t occur until tomorrow, with today being the day to build up the cranes and rigging.

The crew of the upcoming SpaceX mission Polaris Dawn was in Huntsville today to speak to Space Campers!

The crew toured Space Camp before addressing campers in the brand-new Space Camp Operations Center. The team discussed their upcoming mission, including mission objectives. Space Camp / Aviation Challenge alumni Julia Lantos was on hand to moderate questions asked by some Space Campers attending this week.

The mission is scheduled for no sooner than Q4 2023, with a possibility that the mission might slip into 2024.

Update: Coverage from WAAY-31
Update: WHNT has their report from the 5pm news on their YouTube channel here.

These four men will be inducted at the Space Camp Hall of Fame Dinner & Induction Ceremony on July 14, 2023.

You can get your tickets by going to https://www.rocketcenter.com/SpaceCampReunion. Tickets to the dinner are $100, but $250 will get you the “All Access Pass” into the entire weekend’s slate of events, including time on Space Camp simulators! Any donations of $150 or more, including All Access Pass purchases, will receive a patch from the Space Camp Alumni Association, available only for this event!

This is technically old news, but I just noticed it recently and thought it was worth a mention.

The “Lifetime Membership” option for the U.S. Space & Rocket Center has been on hiatus for a little over a year.

The lifetime membership had been offered for $1,000 and first became available in early 2014.

Curiously, “Lifetime Membership” is still an option on the Space & Rocket Center Online Shop, but clicking on it doesn’t take you anywhere other than the store’s home page.

Previously known as The Great Moonbuggy Race, the NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge is back after a global-pandemic-sized hiatus of four years! This will be the first rover competition since 2019.

The competition starts tomorrow, Friday, April 21, 2023, and runs through Sunday. It is open to the public, so you’re welcome to go down and see teams compete!

The event is usually streamed online as well. Keeping an eye on the NASA Rover Challenge twitter feed would probably be the best bet to find out how to watch online.

The biggest change this year is the venue. The obstacle course has moved down to Aviation Challenge!

Best of luck to the more than 500 students from around the country and the world who will compete in this event!

May the best rover win!

I just came across this sound bite from Amazon.com and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and I thought it was worth sharing!