Fighter Pilot: Northbrook Student Graduates From Space Camp

NORTHBROOK, IL — Keiler Richardson has an interest in military aviation and the mechanics of flight. The 12-year-old recently attended Aviation Challenge Mach II at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Richardson, a seventh-grader at Field Middle School took part in a weeklong educational program promotes science, technology, engineering and math, while training students and with hands-on activities and missions based on teamwork, leadership and problem-solving, according to a news release.

Students learn principles of aviation and put their knowledge to the test in a variety of flight simulators. Taking the role of fighter pilots, Richardson and team ran control systems and scenario-based missions, as well as trained in water and land survival. At the end of the week, Richardson and crew returned in time to graduate with honors.

Aviation Challenge opened in 1990 and uses fighter pilot training techniques to engage trainees in real-world applications of STEM subjects, according to the news release. Students sleep in quarters designed to resemble military bays.

Almost 1 million trainees have graduated from a Space Camp program since its inception in 1982, including European Space Agency astronaut, Samantha Cristoforetti and NASA astronauts Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, Dr. Kate Rubins, Dr. Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Christina Koch, who set the record for the longest duration space flight by a female. Children and teachers from all 50 states and almost 150 international locations have attended a program.

Interested in training like a fighter pilot? Visit www.spacecamp.com/aviation.