Campers worked under the direction of Suzanne Hurley on July 14 to "launch rockets into space" in the Newtown Continuing Education Kerbal Space Program camp, held at Reed Intermediate School.More information about Newtown Continuing Education and its summer programs is available on its website, .newtown.schooldesk.net/Departments/SummerCampsandPrograms

Students were seated at computers and using the Kerbal Space computer game. Ms Hurley, who is the library/media specialist at Middle Gate Elementary School, is overseeing the camp for the first time this summer. The Kerbal Space Program camp was offered from July 10 to 14, and it is being offered from July 24 to 28 for students exiting grade four and older. The camp is limited to 15 students.

Ms Hurley said students in the program had spent the week of July 10 learning about physics and math. As a team, the students first learned about building rockets, then they learned about orbits and how to "land" simulated rockets on the moon using the computer game.

Some of the students said they had played the game before and others said they were new to it. NHS 2016 graduate Collin Todd assisted Ms Hurley with overseeing the class.

Campers Roman Verna and Christian Palmieri both said they had successfully landed rockets on the moon using the program.

Roman said he had played the game on a Xbox before. He signed up for the camp "to learn some more and see what I could do on the computer."

Christian said this was his first time playing the game.

"It's fun," he said. "I learned a lot about space and rockets."

Other campers liked different parts of the game. Stephen Sibley said he liked designing rovers and his brother Brian said it was fun to design all the structures in the game.

"I had a lot of fun and it was good," said camper Jackson Rader.