Space Camp (United States)

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama is a museum operated by the government of Alabama, showcasing rockets, achievements, and artifacts of the U.S. space program. Sometimes billed as "Earth's largest space museum", astronaut Owen Garriott described the place as, "a great way to learn about space in a town that has embraced the space program from the very beginning." The center opened in 1970, just after the Apollo 12 Moon landing, the second crewed mission to the lunar surface. It showcases Apollo Program hardware, including the Apollo 16 capsule, and also houses interactive science exhibits, Space Shuttle exhibits, and Army rocketry and aircraft. With more than 1,500 permanent rocketry and space exploration artifacts, as well as many rotating rocketry and space-related exhibits, the center occupies land carved out of Redstone Arsenal adjacent to Huntsville Botanical Garden at exit 15 on Interstate 565. The center offers bus tours of nearby NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Two camp programs offer visitors the opportunity to stay on the grounds to learn more about spaceflight and aviation. U.S. Space Camp gives an in-depth exposure to the space program through participant use of simulators, lectures, and training exercises. Aviation Challenge offers a taste of military fighter pilot training, including simulations, lectures, and survival exercises. Both camps provide residential and day camp educational programs for children and adults.

The Main Propulsion Test Article (MPTA-098) was built by Rockwell International as a testbed for the definitive propulsion and fuel delivery systems for the U.S. Space Shuttle Program.

The Space Shuttle Pathfinder (unofficial Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-098) is a Space Shuttle test simulator made of steel and wood. Constructed by NASA in 1977 as an unnamed facilities test article, it was purchased in the early 1980s by the America-Japan Society, Inc. which had it refurbished, named it, and placed it on display in the Great Space Shuttle Exhibition in Tokyo. The mockup was later returned to the United States and placed on permanent display at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, in May 1988.

The Saturn V dynamic test vehicle, designated SA-500D, is a prototype Saturn V rocket used by NASA to test the performance of the rocket when vibrated to simulate the shaking which subsequent rockets would experience during launch. It was the first full-scale Saturn V completed by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Though SA-500D never flew, it was instrumental in the development of the Saturn V rocket which propelled the first men to the Moon as part of the Apollo program. Built under the direction of Dr. Wernher von Braun, it served as the test vehicle for all of the Saturn support facilities at MSFC.SA-500D is the only Saturn V on display that was used for its intended purpose, and the only one to have been assembled prior to museum display. It is on permanent display at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama.

The Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering (ASCTE) is an American high school located in Huntsville, Alabama. Founded in 2018, it is the first tuition-free residential high school focused on the integration of cyber technology and engineering across all academic disciplines. The school puts a focus on the teaching various topics relating to cyber, technology, and engineering, integrating such topics into core classes. The school is a state-owned magnet school that requires an application. Funds are provided through sponsorship of major companies, in exchange for internships that the students complete their senior year.

The National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) in Huntsville, Alabama is a joint research venture between NASA and the seven research universities of the state of Alabama, represented by the Space Science and Technology Alliance. The aim of the NSSTC is to foster collaboration in research between government, academia, and industry. It consists of seven research centers: Space Science, Global Hydrology & Climate, Information Technology, Advanced Optics, Biotechnology, Material, and Propulsion. The west face of the building also houses the National Weather Service forecast office in Huntsville. Each center is managed by researchers from either Marshall Space Flight Center, the host NASA facility, or the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), the host university. For UAH purposes, the building is known as Robert "Bud" Cramer Research Hall and houses the Atmospheric Science and Space Science programs.

The Nano and Micro Devices Center (NMDC) is a research center located at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The center forms the backbone of nanotechnology research in the university. It operates a level 4 clean room as well as several other lab facilities.

On February 12, 2010, three people were killed and three others wounded in a shooting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) in Huntsville, Alabama, United States. During a routine meeting of the biology department attended by approximately 12 people, Amy Bishop, a biology professor at the university, began shooting those nearest her with a Ruger P95 handgun. Bishop was charged with one count of capital murder and three counts of attempted murder. On September 11, 2012, she pleaded guilty to the charges after family members of victims petitioned the judge against use of the death penalty. The jury heard a condensed version of the evidence on September 24, as required by Alabama law. The same day, Bishop was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.In March 2009, Bishop had been denied tenure at UAH, making spring 2010 her last semester there, per university policy. Due to the attention Bishop attracted as a result of the shooting, previous violent incidents in which she had been involved or implicated were reevaluated. In 1986, she shot and killed her brother in Braintree, Massachusetts, in an incident officially ruled an accident. She was also questioned, along with her husband, after a 1993 pipe bomb incident was directed at her lab supervisor.

The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) is a public research university in Huntsville, Alabama. The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and comprises eight colleges: arts, humanities & social sciences; business; education; engineering; honors; nursing; science; and graduate. The university's enrollment is approximately 10,000. It is part of the University of Alabama System and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities: Very High Research Activity".

Bridge Street Town Centre is a lifestyle center in Huntsville, Alabama, developed by O&S Holdings and designed by TSArchitects, both of Los Angeles. The center is located in Cummings Research Park at the intersection of Old Madison Pike, Interstate 565, and Research Park Boulevard (Alabama State Route 255). Bridge Street includes 550,000 sq ft (51,000 m2) of retail space featuring a Cinemark movie theater and 80 shops and restaurants as well as a one six-story, 140,000 sq ft (13,000 m2) Class A office space building, and an eleven-story, 232 room Westin Hotel and a 150-room Element by Westin hotel. The center used to feature a 10-acre (40,000 m2) lake, but need for a department store anchor pad and leakage problems caused most of it to be filled in. A 5 acre lake remains. The retail portion of the mixed-use project opened on November 1, 2007. The Westin became the first in Alabama when it opened in Spring of 2008. Bridge Street offers a wide variety of shops and restaurants. Among them are Altar'd State, Anthropologie, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Bath and Body Works, Bed Bath and Beyond, Belk, Connors Steak & Seafood, DSW Shoes, Francesca's, H&M, Mountain High Outfitters, P.F. Chang's, Sephora, Victoria's Secret and other boutique shops, as well as a Cinemark movie theater.

The Huntsville Botanical Garden is a 118 acres (480,000 m2) botanical garden located at 4747 Bob Wallace Avenue, Huntsville, Alabama, near the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. It is open year-round for a fee. The garden is ranked third on the list of Alabama's top paid tourist attractions, receiving 353,841 visitors in 2018.

Redstone Arsenal is a United States Army base adjacent to Huntsville, Alabama in the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. It is a census-designated place in Madison County, Alabama, United States and is part of the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. The Arsenal is a host to over 75 tenant agencies including the Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and NASA's largest field center, the Marshall Space Flight Center.The Arsenal today contains a government and contractor workforce that averages 36,000 to 40,000 personnel daily. The base has benefited from decisions by the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission and has a residential population of 837 as of 2020.Established during World War II as a chemical manufacturing facility, in the immediate post-war era the Arsenal was used for research and development by German rocket scientists who were brought to the U.S. as part of Operation Paperclip. The team first worked on ballistic missiles, starting with derivatives of the V-2 rocket, before moving on to a series of ever larger designs. In 1956 the Army was relieved of most of its ballistic missiles in favor of similar weapons operated by the US Air Force. The German design team was spun off to become part of the newly founded NASA. The Cold War had moved to space, and the US intended to compete with the Soviet Union there and across the globe. The Arsenal served as the primary site for space launch vehicle design and testing into the 1960s.