A true story based on the book, "A Smile as Big as the Moon" by Mike Kersjes and Joe Layden.
U.S. Space Camp is actually an Alabama State agency, not a U.S. Government Installation, and is operated by the Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission doing business as "U.S. Space & Rocket Center." The term and name "Space Camp" refers to both the actual physical campus as well as a variety of related programs offered twelve months per year on the campus.
Space Camp was founded in 1982, and had a year long 25th anniversary celebration in 2007.
Space Camp actually "franchises" itself, with internationally licensed Space Camps presently (as of 2012) including: Space Camp Turkey, Space Camp Canada (known as "Camp Spatial" in French), Space Camp Spain, European Space Camp (located at Andøya Rocket Range) in Norway, and Space Camp Belgium. The U.S. Space & Rocket Center Foundation is in the process of licensing additional camps in Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, India, and Malaysia.
The story takes place over approximately a one year period, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and at U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama in 1988 and 1989.