The inaugural Rocket City Space Fest is fueling up for launch.

Why it matters: Organizers like Ralph Petroff are hoping to create an annual event that will grow into a globally-recognized festival celebrating all things space and Apollo in the city that helped build the country's space legacy.

The latest: The festival recently announced its full slate of 15 founding partners, including big names like Blue Origin, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, as well as SafeSplash Swim School and Swim Labs and the National Space Club Huntsville.

How it works: The nine-day festival is centered around the anniversary of the 1969 Apollo mission that first landed man on the Moon.

• From July 16-24, events will follow the milestones of the Apollo mission from launch to splashdown, anchored around Apollo Day, July 20, the anniversary of the first human Moon landing.

Case in point: Events include Lift-Off Day on July 16 with a Saturn V-themed event at the Space & Rocket Center Biergarten featuring Dorothy "Dottie" Metcalf-Lindenburger, the first Space Camp alum to become an astronaut.

• The Apollo Day celebration is a lunar-themed Concert in the Park with a 600-drone show, the state's largest to date.
• The festival culminates in a Splashdown party and Apollo veterans recognition July 24.

Zoom in: Organizers see a more expansive festival in the future, one akin to South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, with related music, film, art and science festivals throughout the nine-day stretch.

• Petroff credited Matt Mandrella, Huntsville's music officer, on the idea to expand it into a week-plus-long celebration, and "make this a one-of-a-kind celebration of space, science and the arts."

Context: Petroff noted the roots of the festival reach back to 1950, when German scientists including Wernher von Braun first arrived to build the country's space program alongside locals.

• "I would argue that those sharecroppers' sons and daughters and these elite German academics were the world's most successful utopians," Petroff told Axios, noting contributions to the arts and the community.
• "Because here we are a couple generations later, and we're regularly voted the best place to live," he said.

The bottom line: "Our goal is that in five years' time, Huntsville will be the place where global humanity celebrates Apollo and all things space," Petroff told Axios.

Summer camp isn't just for kids anymore.

The big picture: Adventure and connection seekers are increasingly signing up for grownup versions, complete with zip lines, campfires and speed-friending.

Why it matters: Americans are spending less time socializing than they did two decades ago, fueling a loneliness epidemic.

• Adult camps promise something increasingly hard to find: real-world connection.

Driving the news: Summer camps for grownups are booming across the U.S. and Europe, the Economist recently reported.

• Yelp searches for such getaways jumped roughly 350% last year.

Zoom in: Huntsville's best-known camp, Space Camp, is a little different than the traditional summer camp, but offers adult versions too, starting with Adult Space Academy, a version of the iconic experience tailored for grownups.

• Per the website, the three-day experience includes training like an astronaut, launching a model rocket, ropes course, testing engineering skills by designing a heat shield and a simulated space mission.

Case in point: If you want to take it to the next level, there's the week-long Adult Advanced Space Academy.

• In addition to the activities in the base version, it includes an extended-duration simulated space mission, flying jets in a simulator and the neutral buoyancy SCUBA experience in the Underwater Astronaut Trainer.

Zoom out: Near Colorado's Pike-San Isabel National Forest, for example, Camp Bettie hosts weekend camps for women and nonbinary adults.

• Alongside classics like archery, kayaking and zip-lining, campers can take workshops on power tools, self-defense, astrology and cookie decorating.
• There are also massages, tarot readings, tattoos and, perhaps most importantly, speed-friending and women's circles designed to spark lasting friendships.

The bottom line: Camps promise meaningful bonds — and the chance to be a kid again — which, for many, is priceless.

🇺🇸 U.S. Rep. Dale Strong announced 21 area students who have earned spots at U.S. service academies. (Alabama Political Reporter)

✏️ Nonprofit Free 2 Teach has opened a supply store allowing teachers to stock up as the school year approaches. (WAFF)

📑 A judge dismissed the lawsuit challenging Sen. Tommy Tuberville's residency requirements to run for governor. (Alabama Daily News)

The U.S. Navy is partnering with AE Shoals, an industrial development and advisory firm based in Cherokee, on a study to see how America can strengthen its industrial base.

The big picture: The firm will work with the Energetics Technology Center and other Navy units to "assess domestic manufacturing vulnerabilities, identify capacity gaps, and develop recommendations to strengthen long-term industrial readiness," per an announcement.

• The focus is on energetics, or military explosives, propellants and pyrotechnic systems.

Zoom in: AE Shoals' participation is specifically structured to complement the Navy's Energetics Comprehensive Modernization Plan, per the announcement, an "initiative to revitalize the organic defense industrial base for explosives, propellants and munitions manufacturing."

Context: AE Shoals' nearly 640-acre campus is home to the Hadrian shipbuilding factory opened earlier this year to support production of U.S. Navy nuclear submarines.

What they're saying: "We're here to bring additional resources, expertise and industrial capacity to an effort that deserves every advantage we can provide," said Chris Emerson, AE Shoals CEO, in the statement.