Cash and pledges have been received from charitable trusts and foundations, business organizations, local community organizations, individual donors and the San Antonio area school districts . D.C. It was founded in 1986 by the families of crew members lost in the Space Shuttle Challenger accident earlier that year. The Challenger Center mission is to encourage long-term interest in math, science and technology and to motivate students to pursue careers in these fields. There are more than 40 Challenger Learning Centers in North America with many new sites planned. The Challenger Learning Center at Brooks houses a space station simulator and a mission control facility where students take on real-life responsibilities, such as navigation or life support and even mission control which is modeled after the facility at NASA s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
High emphasis is given to the application of math and science skills to real-life problems.
During the pre-mission training, teachers experience the simulation activities and review curriculum materials provided to them. The project is a collaborative initiative sponsored by the Brooks Aerospace Foundation, supported by 15 Bexar County School Districts and the national Challenger Center for Space Science Education. The center will be available to other organizations, corporate training teams, and private schools on a space available basis.