'I trained as an astronaut at space camp for adults - our mission was intense'
"Houston, we have a problem,” my co-pilot warned our command base as a piercing alarm rang through the Space Shuttle’s flight deck, prompting us both to hit an assortment of important-looking switches and buttons. After docking with the International Space Station 250 miles above the Earth and switching out two astronauts, we’d come in hot on our return journey, re-entering the atmosphere without fully closing our payload doors. It prompted a frantic scramble among those hoping we’d successfully join them back down on terra firma.
With our craft hurtling down through the atmosphere towards the runway in Florida and two red warning lights flashing with doom-laden regularity, all we could do was hold the shuttle steady and await (hopefully) life-saving instructions from the ground commander. Thankfully I’d not managed to hitch a lift on a real but seemingly ill-fated NASA mission. I was at Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, being put through my paces alongside a group of fellow space cadets.
Space cadets from far and wide signed up (Supplied)While Houston and Cape Canaveral may be better known as hubs of the US space industry, Huntsville has as long and storied a history as both. At the end of the Second World War the affectionately named Rocket City became home to Wernher von Braun after the Americans rushed the genius behind the German V-2 rocket that bombarded London away from Soviet clutches. Here, he spearheaded the Saturn V programme that put the first people on the moon 54 years ago this month.
Today it is home to one of the three active command bases in the country, as well as Space Camp – an activity centre for adults and children that deploys flight simulators, anti-gravity training facilities and a rocket crafting workshop to test fledgling astronauts’ mettle.
I’d arrived to find the scale of the sprawling campus and the full-sized Saturn rockets that tower over its “habitation pods” matching that of the city itself. A five-mile trip down the highway takes you into Downtown Huntsville where a late-night line-dancing and bucking bronco club, a colossal Walmart and several Waffle House branches offer a taste of Southern Americana enthralling to a newly arrived Brit.
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The more advance course lets cadets try out space walking (Supplied)It was exactly as the TV shows had promised. As was the peppiness and friendliness of my course mates. There was no room for British reserve here, but plenty of space for spontaneous hollering and applause.
Our first mission saw me check in any remaining shyness at mission control door and settle down behind a bank of monitors showing a live feed of a CGI Mars lander. Armed with a headset and script, my task was to lead three technicians and a group of astronauts on a payload-gathering run across the surface of the Red Planet.
It was remarkable how quickly we suspended disbelief and got stuck into the apparent importance of the mission, fearing for the safety of our crew as campmate-turned-chaotic-weatherman Scott warned of an incoming space storm, and lost the plot as the countdown timer marched mercilessly on.
I got to give bouncing up and down a go (Milo Boyd)The task unravelled into Martian confusion. Sadly my first mission in charge could not be counted as a success. What could, however, was arguably Space Camp’s biggest attraction – the multi-axis trainer.
In 1966 Neil Armstrong and David Scott found their Gemini VIII craft spinning violently out of control amid a thruster malfunction. The first man on the moon proved himself a hero by steadying the ship enough to return to Earth, while teetering on the edge of consciousness and barely able to see the panel as Gemini tumbled through the inky blackness.
Another successful mission (Supplied)Just like the pioneering astronauts from the early 60s Mercury mission, one by one we were strapped into the multi-axis trainer to see how we’d have fared in what was NASA’s first real near-catastrophe. Three ominous metal rings slide silently in different directions, hurling space cadets every which way. Not only did we all manage to cling on to our space rations, we gained a new appreciation of how well-trained and fearless astronauts must be.
Less of a serious lesson was had on the zero gravity simulator – a huge baby-bouncer in all but name that lets cadets spring about joyously as if they’re on the moon’s surface.
Getting behind the controls of the ShuttleLike I did, you may be wondering what kind of people go to an adult space camp. The answer is a very diverse crowd, all with a hugely infectious enthusiasm for science, space and larking around.
In our crew was a naval officer with dreams of going extra-terrestrial; an aspiring astro-engineer; two charming dog sitters from Atlanta; a pair of tall, flip-flop wearing Californian brothers (one of which was Mars maverick meteorologist Scott); and Doctor Proctor, a veteran astronaut from SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission who’d helped eight of my classmates on to the course through her foundation.
The camp really puts recruits through their paces (Supplied)
Milo picks up his official graduation certificate at the end of it all (Supplied)Leading us and bravely showing off his space knowledge in a real-life star trooper’s presence was Tom – a podcaster, speech writer and all-round good guy.
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While the two-day three-night course was fleeting, there was a real warmth between the space cadets. Perhaps there is something bonding about building a heat shield from household materials to protect an egg from a blowtorch. More likely, bedding down in dorms with other adults giddy about leaving their work and home lives behind for a moment left everyone feeling like they were at a school summer camp.
These happy nostalgic vibes were well marshalled by the staff, who showered the group with astronomical anecdotes and knew when to ease off the camp atmosphere and treat us like adults.
On the first night this saw Tom take me and the dog sitters on a personal after-hours tour of the adjoining museum. We wandered beneath the suspended, full-size Saturn V prototype and squeezed into a landing capsule, living out Night at the Museum fantasies with fewer Attila the Hun and T-Rex skeleton encounters and more Buzz Aldrin.
On the second night it meant an impromptu trip into the woods to see the treetops lit up by fireflies, then a visit to line-dancing club Whisky Bottoms, with real cowboy-hat-wearing, knee-slapping dancers.
The course felt short but action packed, fitting in breakfast with a NASA scientist, a planetarium, model rocket building and blasting, and a talk on space artefacts. There is a longer, more ambitious course.
The graduation class early June 2023, Team Pioneer (Supplied)On the last day we did more team building on the low ropes, a hilarious activity for those of us still feeling giddy from a night stomping on the barn floor.
We clapped uproariously for one another as, one by one, we took to the graduation stage to receive our wings. Despite the fact our Shuttle mission ended up with us landing in the bushes, we all ended up making the grade.
Just like the camp as a whole, watching adult space cadets, mums with sons and dads with daughters – all dressed up in astronaut suits – receive their certificates was silly, moving and genuinely uplifting all at the same time.
To Huntsville... and beyond!
Book the holiday
America As You Like It offers a seven-night Alabama fly-drive from £1,465 per person, including return flights from Heathrow to Huntsville via Atlanta, seven days fully-inclusive car hire and room-only accommodation. Price based on travel on selected dates in November. americaasyoulikeit.com.
The US Space & Rocket Center’s three-day Adult Space Academy course at One Tranquility Base, Huntsville, costs from around £496 per person, with on-site full-board accommodations. rocketcenter.com/spacecamp/adult/academy.
More info at alabama.travel.
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