5th-grader graduates from space camp

Cc Earley-Smithson, a fifth-grader at Vestavia Hills Elementary Central, attended space camp this summer at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Official Visitor Center.

The weeklong educational program promotes science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), while training students and adults with hands-on activities and missions based on teamwork, leadership and problem solving.

Earley-Smithson was part of the Space Camp program designed for trainees who have an interest in space exploration. She spent the week training with a team that flew a simulated space mission to Mars. The crew participated in experiments and successfully completed an extra-vehicular activity (EVA), or spacewalk, and returned to Earth in time to graduate with honors.

Space camp operates year round in Huntsville and uses astronaut training techniques to engage trainees in real-world applications of STEM subjects. 

Trainees sleep in quarters designed to resemble the International Space Station and train in NASA-inspired simulators.

— Submitted by Rusty Smithson and U.S. Space and Rocket Center.