HUNTSVILLE, Ala.— A longtime dream of the rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun has become a reality with the nation's first Space Camp, intended to interest boys and girls in aerospace careers. The eight weeklong camp sessions are continuing throughout the summer.
Seventy-five youngsters 12 through 14 years old spend the week in astronaut training at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Marshall Space Flight Center, where astronauts trained, and at the Alabama Space and Rocket Center, a state-run museum. They wear space suits, sample the freeze-dried food eaten in space and experience weightlessness. They are housed on the campus of the University of Alabama at Huntsville.
In June, children came from 19 states for the first week of camp and from 24 states for the second week. The cost is $175 a week.
The high point of each week is a simulated space-shuttle mission by each eight-member team. Four youngsters sit at a flight console monitoring activities of the other four inside a shuttle cockpit built for the camp. Recently, midway through the mission one rehearsed script changed because of an emergency in the cargo area. The crew improvised, using principles learned during the week.
One of the teams failed in the theoretical emergency. A critical decision was four seconds late, causing the orbiter Marauder to reenter the earth's atmosphere upside down.
Permanent museum exhibits, such as a 36-passenger shuttle space liner and a zero-gravity machine, take campers and tourists on simulated space flights. The museum's outdoor rocket and missile collection, including a 364-foot Saturn V, proves to be an unusual classroom for studying rockets.
Mike Dieudonne, 14, surprised his father, who traveled from New Iberia, La., for an awards ceremony recently, by saying he wanted to return next year. ''Until today, Mike has never said right after a camp that he wanted to come back,'' the father told the space center director, Edward O. Buckbee. Fulfilling von Braun's Dream
Mr. Buckbee said the enthusiastic response is an indication that the summer-long program will fulfill Mr. von Braun's dream of stimulating children's interest in science.
''One time when Dr. von Braun was visiting our space museum he asked, 'Why can't we promote science like football and tennis pros promote their sports?' '' Mr. Buckbee said. '' 'Why not come up with a program that would permit youngsters to become involved and excited over science?' ''
The idea lay dormant until the space center developed plans for a $16 million expansion, which included funds for the Space Camp. A learning center with dormitory space for up to 200 is proposed.
Mr. Buckbee said details of how the permanent facilities should be designed will be decided at the conclusion of the eight-week program. Until dormitories are built on the space center property, campers will continue to be housed at the University of Alabama campus.
''We feel this is a positive way to motivate boys and girls toward a broader understanding of space exploration,'' Mr. Buckbee said, adding that he expects other science centers to imitate the program. He has copyrighted the name Space Camp.
The camp's manager, Jean Graben, who is an eighth-grade science teacher, shares Mr. Buckbee's concern over what he feels is a declining emphasis on science education. She said, ''Children are dropping out of science at a faster and faster rate because they are not being motivated and we're hoping, in some way, to help turn the trend around. We believe this hands-on experience of space science will, in fact, motivate many toward the higher sciences.''
A total of 800 boys and girls will have participated by the end of summer. An informal survey of departing campers' preferences revealed that gravity experiments inside the museum's centrifugal theater and tours of the adjoining NASA center ranked highest; the space food was the least popular.
Many campers said they had been encouraged to attend by relatives. Others had learned of the program from teachers.
Nathan Haggard, 13, of Ocala, Fla., can watch the space shuttle streak into orbit from his home near Kennedy Space Center. He came to Huntsville at the urging of an uncle who flies for the Ohio Air National Guard.
Fourteen-year-old Riley Suiter of Hamilton, Ark., who noticed a Space Camp brochure on his teacher's desk, said a background in space science may help him become an Air Force pilot.
Shere Colvin, 14, of Evergreen, Colo., is interested in space technology, but not in flying aboard the shuttle. Although she has flown on planes and helicopters, ''I'd be too scared to go in a rocket,'' she said.
''I'm interested in how NASA gets the rockets off the ground,'' said Tamatha Brumley, 13, of Houston. ''To me, it's amazing.'' Craig Wirth, 14, of Santa Barbara, Calif., initially hesitated about attending, but said he enjoyed being part of the first teen-age space shuttle team.
The camp's mascot, Monkeynaut Baker, a squirrel monkey, was the first passenger to survive an American space flight. She lives in the museum.
The campers were led in discussions on rocketry by Konrad Dannenberg and Ernest Stuhlinger, members of the German rocket team that accompanied Mr. von Braun to Huntsville in 1950. Mr. Buckbee told a parent, ''You can't find a better authority to talk about how America got to the moon than the men who helped put us there.''
By sundown, all but two 12-year-olds had left for home. Chip Yarbrough and his friend, David Cole III, both of Birmingham, Ala., had persuaded their parents to wait while they continued to launch their model rockets into the darkening sky against a museum background of Redstone, Jupiter and Saturn rockets developed by the von Braun team.