PACOIMA : 2 Teens Get Free Ride to U.S. Space Camp

Space may not be the final frontier for two teen-agers from Maclay Middle School.

But space camp is on this summer’s travel plans.

Eighth-graders Alicia Ramos, 14, and Johnny Madrid, 13, will attend U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala., for a week in July.

They earned the free trip with essays they wrote last winter in a contest sponsored by the Lockheed Corporate Management Assn. in Calabasas, part of the Lockheed Martin aerospace company, now based in Bethesda, Md. Over the past four years, the association has sent 25 youngsters to space camp on full scholarships.

Students were asked to write about gains that have been made over the years through space exploration. Alicia listed the benefits to medicine and science. “Space is the incredible place where no one has ever discovered the limit,” she wrote in her essay.

Johnny noted that the study of space has helped scientists to obtain accurate information about the depleting ozone layer. If it weren’t for space exploration, he wrote, “we . . . would not be able to determine ways to conserve our earth’s only protection from the sun’s harmful radiation.”

At camp, students will learn about the history of space flights, astronaut mission training and shuttle propulsion systems.

“I’ve never been to the South,” Alicia said. “I think it’s really going to be exciting to get to the other side of the country.”