Getting a spot in the coveted KSC space camp is like getting a golden ticket

What are the chances you get to ride a rocket to the moon in the next year?

Some parents say you have a better shot at that than getting your child a spot at Camp Kennedy Space Center.

The summer camp, held at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, is attended by children ages 7 to 16 from all over the world.

Attendees spend one week at the space center doing a ton of hands-on activities including STEM challenges, growing and harvesting vegetables in a lab and sharing the data with NASA scientists and using virtual reality to explore the surface on Mars. Campers use team building and communication to solve emergencies astronauts may encounter, design engineering builds and more.

The $350 fee also includes lunch and a snack each day, a T-shirt and name badge as well as admission to KSCVC for four family members once camp is completed.

Sounds like a blast right?

Only one problem.

“It’s like trying to get Taylor Swift tickets,” said Summer Merrell.

More: Blue Origin virtual-reality capsule exhibit opens at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex

It was March 2023 when Merrell, a West Melbourne mom of three, thought she was ahead of the summer camp game when she started researching Camp KSC. She quickly learned the camp was long sold out.

This year Merrell had a plan in place when registration was set to open Jan. 18, nearly four months before the first camp session. Her sister in Tennessee also was hoping to secure a spot for her son so the two cousins could attend the camp together.

“We cleared our morning and made sure we would be able to do the registration,” Merrell recalled. “We were pretty confident we were doing everything we could to get in. We felt as prepared as we could be.”

At 9 a.m. they were able to enter a virtual waiting room. At 11 a.m. registration officially opened and the same message popped up on both of their screens: their wait time was “more than one hour.”

Less than two hours later, the entire camp was sold out. Merrell never got past the virtual waiting room.

“I was sad and shocked at how little chance we actually had,” Merrell said.

Once the disappointment subsidized, Merrell posted about the morning events on her popular Instagram account Space.Coasting, which is a lifestyle brand and social media resource that primarily focuses on Brevard County.

“I got lots of feedback from parents who sympathized,” she said.

According to other social media posts, this is the way it is every year.

“We can only hope it’s less of a nightmare than last year,” one mom wrote before this year’s registration opened.

“It’s always a disaster because so many people want to get it,” read another comment.

Another mom said she had five different devices opened to the registration page and even that didn’t help.

Viera mom Danielle McBride used that same tactic. She had four devices up and ready to go. Two of her sons attended the camp last year and had such an amazing time she wanted to repeat it this summer.

“It’s one of the most sought-after camps in our area if not the country,” McBride said. “They do such a wonderful job with the STEM projects, the hands-on experiences they get. It’s giving them the base knowledge of ‘Wow I could do this. This could be a career for me.’”

About an hour and a half after registration opened a message popped up that the groups McBride needed were sold out. And then she got a text from a friend.

“My friend was in and said she could sign up my older son, but my younger son’s group was sold out,” McBride said. “It is like winning the lottery. Did you have the magic IP address to win the queue?”

Adults have 10 minutes to complete registration and can register up to six children during the process.

“Camp KSC is a popular program and sells out quickly each year,” said KSC Visitor Complex spokesperson Rebecca Burgman. “In order to best accommodate the large volume of interest, we created a virtual waiting room prior to registration opening, and a virtual queue once registration opened. Our teams closely monitored the situation to ensure the process went as smoothly as possible.”

Despite some speculation on social media, Burgman said employees to do not get early access to sign ups.

“In order to provide equal opportunity to all those interested in Camp KSC, we do not offer early registration or provide special access to specific groups, including employees,” she said. “There is also no deference given to residents of any particular location.”

Campers are split into five different groups based on age, but exactly how many campers are in each age group was not released.

While summer 2025 is still a year and a half away, Burgman suggested parents sign up now for the Camp KSC email and newsletters to get advance notice of sale dates.

“Sure I’ll try again next year but I’ll go in with little expectations,” Merrell said.

Spitzer can be reached at mspitzer@floridatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Getting a spot in the coveted KSC space camp is like getting a golden ticket