EXPLORE THE COSMOS

WHEN I WAS in third grade, I watched a movie called Space Camp.

- ROY WOOD JR.

The plot involves a group of kids at (you guessed it) space camp who accidentally get shot into space and have to figure out how to steer their space shuttle back to Earth. Even though its logic doesn't hold up, Space Camp unlocked something in my brain. The movie was my first real introduction to aviation and space—and I became fascinated by flying.

I don't remember all the details, but I know that at some point the following summer, a brochure for a real space camp, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, entered the house. I begged my mom, every day, for two weeks straight, just to open it. Just to look at it. Finally, she cracked and told me that she didn't have to look at the brochure to know that we couldn't afford it.