Nadia Cheng of Potsdam recently attended “Space Camp” at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, NASA’s official Visitor Information Center for Marshall Spaceflight Center.

The weeklong educational program promotes science, technology, engineering and math, while training students and adults with hands-on activities and missions based on teamwork, leadership and decision-making.

Cheng was part of the Space Academy program, which is specifically designed for trainees who have a particular interest in science. She spent the week training with a team that flew a simulated space shuttle mission to the International Space Station.

Once aboard the space station, the crew participated in experiments and successfully completed an extra-vehicular activity, or space walk.

Cheng and crew returned to earth in time to hear former NASA astronaut Captain Wendy Lawrence speak at their graduation.

Space Camp crew trainers lead each 16-member team. Trainers must have at least a year of college, and 67 percent of the staff are college graduates.

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

Students sleep in quarters designed to resemble the ISS and train in simulators like those used by NASA.

More than 700,000 trainees have graduated from Space Camp since its opening in Huntsville in 1982, including STS-131 astronaut Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, who returned from the International Space Station in June.

Last year, children and teachers from all 50 states and 69 international locations attended Space Camp.

Visit www.spacecamp.com for more information.