Challenger Learning Center

Return to the Moon or take a Voyage to Mars in our space mission simulator.

For scheduled field trips and group reservations only. Please call ahead for this experience, as a fee applies.

Your visit to the Challenger Learning Center is not just a field trip — it's a unique hands-on learning experience, transforming you into a scientist, engineer, or researcher on a simulated space mission, complete with mission control and spacecraft. From the moment of lift-off to the completion of the mission, you become a critical member of one of eight mission teams. Participants will have the opportunity to become both mission controller and spacecraft astronaut.

Inside the center, groups of 16 to 36 students in grades 5 and up become crew members on a simulated space mission. Excitement builds as they return to the moon as a crew.

Crew members must solve real-life problems in math, science and technology to successfully complete their mission. Each team is critical, and the success of the mission is dependent upon the work of all teams. The two-hour simulation takes place in a realistic mock-up of a spacecraft and mission control room.

Challenger Learning Center Info Sheet

State Standards:

Grade 5: 1a, 1f, 3b, 5b, 5c, 6f, 6g, 6h

Grade 6: 1b, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7g

Grade 7: 4b, 4d, 6d, 6i, 6j, 7a, 7c, 7d, 7e

Grade 8: 1a, 2b, 2d, 2f, 2g, 3d, 4e, 7c, 9e, 9f

Grades 9-12: 1b, 1d, 1f, 3c, 4d, 5a, 5d, 9a