WALLOPS -- Campers at the Virginia Space Flight Academy's six co-ed, residential camps this summer experienced "brain-stretching fun," according to Executive Director Nancy Marasco.

More than 150 campers learned about science, math, robotics and rocketry. In that number were 10 local middle-school students who were awarded scholarships to attend the camp.

The VSFA partnered with Accomack County public schools to offer the scholarships. Students entered an essay contest with the topic being what they would like to see be the next space mission and why. Winners received full scholarships to a weeklong camp.

The winning entries represented Arcadia, Chincoteague and Nandua Middle Schools.

"These students truly appreciated what is in their own backyard," Marasco said.

Among actitivies campers enjoyed were seeing the day-to-day operations on many active sites on Wallops Island including NOAA, NASA and the U.S. Navy.

They saw the Antares rocket, which is scheduled to go to the International Space Station later this year, the machine shop, Aegis, Payload T&E, the Range Control Center, the Wallops Fire Department and the NASA Visitor Center.

Additionally, campers launched their own water bottle rockets, Alpha one-stage rockets and Mongoose two-stage rockets.

They also competed in a robotics challenge each week.

One week saw the launching of the BrandtXI sounding rocket -- counselors woke them up at 4 a.m. to make sure they didn't miss it.

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Youth enjoy space camp