Soaring vision for students; Planned Challenger Learning Center intended to spark kids' interest in space travel.(Capital Region)

Byline: RICK KARLIN Staff Writer

SCHENECTADY - Movies, musicals and drama won't be the only events around Proctor's Theatre. By 2007, elementary and middle school students should be able to visit the old Carl Co. building next to the theater and take a space journey.

The simulated star voyages will take place in a Challenger Learning Center, which is a mock-up of both a NASA space station lab and mission control center.

So far, there are 51 such centers nationwide, including sites in Suffern and Rochester.

Conceived as a way to honor the memory of the astronauts killed in the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster, the learning centers aim …