The Space Center Celebrates its 35th Birthday. How it All Began. The Space Center Hosts Volunteer Family Night to Celebrate 35 Years. Imaginairum Theater.

Volunteer Family Night: Celebrating 35 Years of Space Center Magic!

Last night — November 8, 2025 — the Space Center threw open its airlocks for one of the most anticipated events of our 35th anniversary celebration: Volunteer Family Night!

Bill Schuler with the Display Case full of his plastic modelled creations.

It was an evening to celebrate our volunteers — the heart and soul of the Space Center — and to let their families see firsthand what makes this place so stellar.

Bradyn getting things set up

Anya, Omar, and Eli preparing the cookies and cupcakes

By 6:30 PM, families began arriving, filling the lobby with excited chatter and that familiar buzz of cosmic curiosity. Our 80 volunteers and their families were split into Alpha and Beta groups, each with a mission plan packed with out-of-this-world activities.

🪐 The Mission Plan

Each crew’s journey included:
1️⃣ A planetarium presentation led by the ever-brilliant Brylee, who guided guests through the stars.
2️⃣ Simulator tours with Jon and Mitch, giving families an inside look at the magic behind our legendary missions.
3️⃣ A dazzling laser show in the planetarium, engineered by Mr. Porter and Brylee — a real cosmic light symphony!
4️⃣ A Space Center history presentation in the faculty room, where stories of our 35-year journey came to life.
5️⃣ And of course, refreshments in the gym — because even astronauts need a little sugar! 

6:30 P.M.the volunteers and families begin to gather

The Planetarium Team: Brylee and Mr. Porter. The red lighting because he was working in the planetarium's crow's nest on a laser show.

At the refreshment stations, Anya and her team ran the cookie decorating table like pros, while Bradyn and Jacqueline Lystrup served up cotton candy and snow cones for two straight hours (talk about endurance training!).

Mission Accomplished

By 8:30 PM, the mission was complete  — it was a night to remember.

Huge thanks to:

• Mr. Porter, our Director, for helping me organize the event and crafting that incredible laser show.

• Brylee Perry, for her stellar planetarium presentation.

• Bill Schuler and Mark Daymont, who kept the lobby and display case running smoothly.

• Mitch Foote and Jon Parker, for leading simulator tours and helping with the history presentation.

• Anya Whiting, Eli, and Omar, for keeping the cookie and cupcake stations deliciously busy.

• Bradyn and Jacqueline Lystrup, for providing the carnival atmosphere with their goodies.

Mitch and Jon

And, of course, thank you to all our volunteers — for showing off your Space Center pride, sharing your love of exploration, and giving your families a true insider’s view of the adventures you help create every day.

Here’s to 35 years of inspiring young minds to look up — and to the next 35 years of wonder, teamwork, and discovery.

Happy 35th Birthday, Space Center!

Ad Astra!

Victor Williamson

Thoughts and a Short Video by James Porter on the Space Center's 35th Birthday

Today marks 35 years since the Voyager simulator first started taking students on experiences beyond the limitations of a typical classroom. So many individuals have collectively helped us to reach this point, so we give thanks to them and those who continue to inspire through the discipline of wonder. Much has changed in the world since our launch in 1990. What hasn't changed is that we are part of an amazing community. A community with the unique collective experience as starship crews exploring our universe through the endless reaches of our imaginations.

We can't imagine 35 years with out you. Happy 35th anniversary to the Christa McAuliffe Space Center and her many crews.

James Porter

Space Center Director

My Reflections on the Space Center's 35th Birthday

 On November 8, 1990, ago the Space Center opened its doors to the world with a massive open house and dedication program.  Hundreds of people attended. The lines to tour the Starship Voyager stretched all the way down the hallway of Central School.  We filled the school's gym for the program. Our guest speaker was Senator Jake Garn, Utah's Senator who went into space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1985.  

Fast forward thirty-five years to today.  Writing as the founder, I want to say thank you to the many hundreds of staff and volunteers who've worked hard over the decades to make the Space Center what it is today; and thank you to the hundreds of thousands of people who've attended a Space Center field trip, camp, private mission, class, etc. for your support.

My inspiration to build the first starship Voyager at Central School in 1989-1990 was rooted in the classroom starship I operated from 1983-1990. The classroom simulator was simple; student desks, poster board controls, a boom box cassette player, an overhead projector, overheads, and a good story. We did our classroom deep space explorations as part of my sixth grade curriculum. More elaborate simulations were used for my Young Astronaut Chapter meetings. Instead of using my classroom, we set up our desks and poster controls in the gym and used the entire school as our starship. 

The original paper helm station for the classroom starship Pegasus.

     I'm often asked, "How did this place [the Space Center] get started?" It's a story I've shared hundreds of times over the last thirty years. Many of you Troubadours know the story so I'll be brief.  
     Spring 1983. Because of a clerical mistake at BYU, my 3rd grade student teaching assignment in Springville was mistakenly given to another student. I was called into the education department office and asked if I'd be kind enough to take a 6th grade student teaching position at Central Elementary School in Pleasant Grove. Mr. Mike Thompson was to be my cooperating teacher. I didn't know where Pleasant Grove was but gladly took the assignment; I liked the 6th grade curriculum and the more mature students.

     

My 6th Grade Student Teaching Class. Mr. Thompson is on the left. Mr. Emal (principal) on the right.
This was their class picture taken in September 1982

     Mr. Thompson asked me to teach the space science unit.  Knowing this unit would make up a large part of my student teaching grade, I wanted to impress my professor with something out of the box and unusual.  I decided to copy Carl Sagan's Cosmos TV series and take the class out into space to witness first hand what I was teaching. Classroom computers were unheard of in the Spring of 1983 so I created poster board controls for the student's desks. I drew most of my visuals (tacticals) on overhead projector plastic 81/2 by 11 sheets and ran the simulations from behind my desk with an overhead projector. My cassette player boom box provided the music. My voice did the sound effects and different voices and accents for my main engineer, computer, and aliens.  

 That spring, the class and I took several voyages into space.  The professor was impressed and gave me an A.  Mr. Thompson enjoyed it and wrote me up a glowing recommendation.  My student teaching ended with a job offer. Mr. Frandsen, the other sixth grade teacher in room 20, announced his retirement and the job was offered.  The rest, as they say, is history.

The poster board weapons and engine controls. The wear and tear speaks of the many missions and hours of fun
this poster provided my students over those many years.

     The poster board controls for the USS Pegasus were easy to use. The student spoke the button's name while pushing the button.  From behind my desk, I'd year the student and make the appropriate sound whilst searching through my stack of overheads for the right visual effect.  

These young Starfleet officers are in their mid early 50's today

Here you go, the USS Pegasus sensors station.

The ship's transporter station. Yes, the dials actually spin

The navigation station. I used water based markers to hand draw a map of the sector on the plastic covered top section.
The students used rulers and protractors to plot and speak their courses.

  

One of the engineering posters for the USS Pegasus.

The communications poster controls.

The inspiration for my classroom simulations came from Carl Sagan's television series "Cosmos" which aired in 1980. I watched Cosmos while I was a student at BYU on a small 12 inch black and white TV.  In Cosmos, Carl Sagan ventured deep into space aboard his starship to inspire the American public to look up and realize where life originated and where it can go. Even today I'll rewatch the opening to Cosmos on YouTube and feel the same feelings I did then.

  

The Space Center's mission is the same as it was on our opening day in 1990, we work to create a space-faring civilization.

Carl Sagan said, "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known".  Perhaps that something is ourselves, and the knowledge that we are all one, woven together into the eternal fabric of time and space.  

Ad Astra!

Victor  

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