Space camp has kids reaching for the stars – and Mars – despite Nasa struggles

Experts say the US has hit a low point in its storied space history, but that hasn't stopped thousands of children from spending their summers learning about the cosmos - and hoping, perhaps, to be among the first on the red planet

Recent evidence, at least, would seem to suggest that space camp - that all-American rite of passage for generations of young math wizards, science geeks and wannabe astronauts - ought to have disappeared into a black hole by now.

Nasa doesn't launch humans into orbit any more, the US government's investment in its own space agency is as low as it has ever been, and the last rocket sent from Cape Canaveral with supplies for the international space station exploded into a fireball last month just seconds after liftoff.