BETHEL — An Oxford Hills Middle School science teacher came close to going into space last month.

Kristin Chambers, a science teacher, joined teachers from 27 countries and 47 states, including an Orono, Maine, school teacher, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., from June 16 to June 20. While there, she participated in 45 hours of professional development, as well as an intensive educator curriculum focused on space science and exploration more commonly known as “space camp.”

“I’ve always wanted to be an astronaut,” said the 24-year-old teacher who lives in Bethel.

Created in partnership with the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in 2004, the Honeywell Educators @ Space Academy program is designed to help teachers move beyond the standard math and science curriculum with supplemental teaching techniques developed through real-life astronaut training.

“The program is designed to help inspire the next generation of students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math by providing teachers with new and innovative techniques to educate their students about science and math … including the real astronaut training,” Ross Moonie, spokesman for the program, said.

Chambers said the road toward space camp began when she was 5 years old and decided she wanted to be an astronaut. Last year when she went to a local workshop on invasive species, she said another teacher told her about the program.

“It was a childhood dream of mine to go into space,” said Chambers, who came to Bethel from Gorham three years ago when she was hired as a teacher and field hockey coach in the middle school.

During her time at space camp, Chambers participated in a number of exercises including a high-performance jet simulation, scenario-based space missions, land and water survival training, state-of-the-art flight dynamics program and Mission Control exercises.

“This was one of the closest ways to have the astronaut experience,” she said.

Since the program’s inception, Honeywell and its employees have sponsored more than 1,448 scholarships for teachers from 43 countries and 50 states, to participate in the Honeywell Educators @ Space Academy programs.

“Honeywell is leading the aerospace industry in science, technology, engineering and math  education through this stellar teachers’ program,” said Dr. Deborah Barnhart, chief executive officer of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, and former VP of Space Exploration for Honeywell. “As Wernher von Braun said, ‘All we can leave our children is what’s in their heads. Education, not material things, is the only legacy no one can take away.’ The Honeywell Educator Class of 2011 will continue this mission.”

Although not old enough to have seen the space program evolve from the single astronaut Mercury capsules of the early ’60s through the Gemini and Apollo programs, Chambers said she has watched the space shuttle launches including the last shuttle in the program — Atlantis that was launched on Friday.

“It definitely saddens me,” she said of the end of the space shuttle program. “I’m not really old enough to be part of the whole space program but it was hard to watch definitely.”

Chambers, who has a degree in biology, said if she could become a “real” astronaut in the NASA program, she would probably opt to be a scientist and work in the International Space Station doing experiments of the type she participated in at space camp.

While she may never get to really fly in space, she has come awfully close to it at space camp with two simulations, playing roles as a crew member in a space orbiter, at Mission Control and on the International Space Station. She also did a simulated launch and a space walk and learned what it felt like to walk on the moon with its reduced gravity.

“The spinny thing wasn’t bad,” she said of the gyrator. “It’s designed so your stomach stays centered. You don’t get queasy, but you do get disorientated.,” she said.

The program was designed so she could bring back information to her science students in the fall and conduct some of the same experiments with them.

“Oh my gosh, everything,” she said when asked what she would bring into her classroom from the experience. “It was such an overwhelming experience.”

Chambers said her next goal is to apply for a highly competitive advanced space camp, which includes a week at Cape Canaveral.

“My goal is in two years to get my application in and then go,” she said.

ldixon@sunjournal.com