- United States Space & Rocket Center
Infobox Museum
name = US Space & Rocket Center
imagesize = 200
established = 1970
location =Huntsville, AL
type = Science museum
director = Larry Capps
curator = Irene Willhite
website = [http://www.spacecamp.com/museum/ www.spacecamp.com/museum/]The U.S. Space & Rocket Center is located in
Huntsville, Alabama . The Center includes amuseum designed to showcase the hardware of the U.S. space program and the facilities of theUnited States Space Camp .Background
The idea for the museum was first proposed by
Dr. Wernher von Braun , who led the efforts of the United States to land the first man on the moon. The center opened in 1970 on land donated from the U.S. Army’sRedstone Arsenal . [ [http://huntsville.about.com/cs/attractions/a/spacecamp.htm In the Beginning: US Space & Rocket Center] ] It houses interactive science exhibits, more than 1,500 permanent rocketry and space exploration artifacts, as well as many rotating rocketry and space-related exhibits. The center is located onInterstate 565 at exit 15, near NASA'sMarshall Space Flight Center .Exhibits
* Original
Saturn V rocket test vehicle – fully restored
*Saturn I rocket
* Fragment of theSkylab space station, after its reentry on July 11, 1979.
* Pathfinder orbiter mock-up
*Apollo 16 command module "Casper"
* Centaur G-Prime upper stage
*A-12 Oxcart "Blackbird" spy plane (incorrectly called an SR-71 in promotional literature)
*Space Shot ™ simulator
*G-Force Accelerator simulator
* Mars Rover simulator
*IMAX ® Theatre - the "Spacedome"
* 3D Movie TheatreOther articles on-site but not visible by the general public:
* Full-scaleSkylab training mock-up (one of three built) [ [http://www.spacecamp.com/saturnv/?page=skylab Skylab Training Mock-up] ]
* Located inAviation Challenge compound:
**F-14 Tomcat (Tomcat # 2 inTop Gun )
**F-16 Fighting Falcon
**F-4 Phantom II (one MiG kill inOperation Bolo )
** YF-111
**A-7 Corsair II
**AH-1 Cobra
**UH-1 Iroquois
** Numerous other articles of aviation related military hardware.Saturn V mock-up
For years, Huntsville residents could point to the
Saturn I rocket at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center as a distant landmark (located a few miles from the city center). In 1999, a full-scale model of theSaturn V rocket was erected, standing nearly twice as tall as the Saturn I.Davidson Center for Space Exploration
The newest addition to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center is the Davidson Center for Space Exploration, opened January 31, 2008, built to house the authentic
Saturn V rocket (listed on theNational Register of Historic Places ) and many other space exploration exhibits. The vehicle is elevated above the floor surface with separated stages and engines exposed, so visitors have the opportunity to walk underneath the rocket. The Davidson Center also features a new 3D movie theater, in addition to theIMAX Theater in the original museum.In 2008, Good Morning America named the
Saturn V one of the Seven Wonders of America (ranked 5th), and televised a segment honoring the Saturn V from the Davidson Center. [ [http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/7WondersofAmerica/ Good Morning America, 7 Wonders of America] , ABC ]pace Camp
The U.S. Space Camp is located on the grounds of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. The camp provides residential and day camp educational programs for children in various age groups and adults. These programs include space oriented camp programs, aircraft themed
Aviation Challenge camps, and outdoor oriented X-Camp programs.Other
The Center is also the resting place of Miss Baker, a squirrel monkey who flew on a suborbital test flight of the
PGM-19 Jupiter rocket onMay 28 ,1959 . Baker lived in a facility at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center for many years until she died of kidney failure onNovember 20 ,1984 .References
External links
* [http://www.spacecamp.com/museum/ U.S. Space & Rocket Center site]
* [http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/ NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.