NASA Teacher in Space finalists merged with Challenger Center in 1987 and gave the organization national educational representation. Today, many of the original Teacher in Space finalists still serve as the core of Challenger Center’s International Faculty.

With a growing network of 53 Challenger Learning Centers across the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, more than 500,000 participants annually fly missions as part of Challenger Center’s educational simulations. Scenarios include a return voyage to the Moon, a mission to resupply a Mars colony, a rendezvous with a comet, and the environmental study of Earth from orbit.

Every Challenger Learning Center is a story in itself of a community bonding to give its young people the opportunity to “touch the future.” Challenger Learning Centers are catalysts by which educators, parents, corporate executives, community leaders, government officials, and others join forces in a union with their educational systems to become directly involved in education.

Challenger Center reaches tens of thousands of other students and educators each year who are outside Learning Center service areas through classroom programs like Mars City Alpha and Marsville, as well as through intensive technological missions conducted over the Internet.

Challenger Center for Space Science Education continues to design new and even more innovative education programs through the support of community-minded corporations, individuals, and foundations as well as government agencies. Their concern is helping Challenger Center to have a positive impact on both teaching and learning. The students using Challenger Center’s programs today could very well become the future leaders of this…and other planets.