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Wheaton Space Camp teaches kids about science, the final frontier

About a dozen youngsters from Wheaton recently got the chance to be junior rocket scientists at a weeklong Space Camp sponsored by the Wheaton Sport Center.

Space Camp Director Lee Wilkenson taught the kids about Sir Isaac Newton's three laws of motion. Then, they put their rockets together using solid rocket engines Wilkenson says are similar to the space shuttle's solid rocket boosters but, of course, much smaller. They also stuffed small parachutes into the rockets for the trip back to earth.

The big finale was when the space campers got to launch their rockets not once, but twice, at Red Hawk Park in Carol Stream, zooming as high as 1,000 feet into the sky.

The Wheaton Sport Center will be offering holiday science camps for kids over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

To sign up, call member services at (630) 315-5334.

Model rockets wait to be launched. Kids in the Space Campers program at the Wheaton Sport Center Space Camp built model rockets and got to blast them off at Red Hawk Park in Carol Stream. Scott Sanders | Staff Photographer
Kathryn Szumski puts her rocket on the launchpad guide wire before sending it skyward. Scott Sanders | Staff Photographer
  Sammy Ahnert lines up his model rocket on the launchpad guide wire. SCOTT SANDERS/ssanders@dailyherald.com
Space Camp Director Lee Wilkenson shows how to pack a parachute in one of his model rockets. Scott Sanders | Staff Photographer

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