U.S. Space and Rocket Center

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center (USSRC) is the largest spaceflight museum in the world with a collection exceeding 1,500 items valued in the tens of millions of dollars. Established in 1965 by the Alabama Legislature and launched in 1970, it was created to showcase technologies emerging from nearby NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, the U.S. Department of Defense, and energy programs.

Today, the USSRC is a model for creating, sustaining and growing programs that inform and inspire visitors to engage in STEM. It serves as the Official Visitor Center for NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. The USSRC is the home of NASA Marshall’s Educator Resource Center. It is also home to the famous Space Camp, Aviation Challenge Camp, and Robotics Camp. More than 750,000 people have completed Space Camp since it started in 1982.

Sally Ride EarthKAM at Space Camp is a free educational program for formal and informal educational groups, typically in the elementary and middle school range. Its core is a NASA-funded, CASIS-supported Earth observation experiment. Students learn about the orbit of the Space Station and the science of Earth observation. They choose specific Earth locations to photograph and submit requests for an automated camera on the ISS to capture images at the appropriate times. Galleries of the students’ images are available to the public at www.earthkam.org.  Sally Ride EarthKAM is administered by the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, University of Alabama in Huntsville, and Teledyne Brown Engineering.

The U.S. Space & Rocket Education Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization raising funds and awareness to support events, programs, facilities and overall growth of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center and Space Camp.