Challenger Learning Center, Saint Louis

The astronauts deftly dodge the oncoming trickle of rocks and debris from the meteor shower, and as the rubble clears they see the Moon up ahead. It is at this site that they’ll soon establish the first permanent human base. Though it sounds like science fiction, novice astronauts attempt this feat daily at Challenger Learning Center-St. Louis. Part of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education—a nonprofit founded by the families of the astronauts who were lost in the 1986 Challenger space-shuttle mission—the center educates and inspires visitors through simulated space missions and other science education programs. Whether navigating a spacecraft or assisting astronauts in Mission Control modeled after NASA’s Johnson Space Center, student, community, and corporate groups must maintain a cooperative spirit while completing their mission.