Alabama’s current governor, Bob Riley, is currently soliciting applications and recommendations for those that want to serve on or recommend someone to serve on a number of state agency boards, the Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission amongst them.

The Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission is the state owned organization that operates the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.

Like any company, even a state run nonprofit, the Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission has a board of directors. Unlike a typical corporate board, members to the ASSEC are appointed by the governor of the state of Alabama for a set term.

Ten of the eighteen commission members’ terms are set to expire on October 1 of this year.

So if you feel like you’d make a good addition to the board, or know someone who would, you can go fill out an application at:

http://governor.alabama.gov/yourgov/upcoming_appointments.aspx

One of the highlights of this year’s Reunion Weekend is a silent auction that will benefit the Space Camp Scholarship Fund.

All of the items up for auction can be seen on this site, and the list of goodies is as follows:

• A Space Camp Flight Suite, Autographed by William Shatner
• An Apollo 13 Movie Poster, Autographed by Tom Hanks
• A Day in Lynchburg, TN Package from Jack Daniel (includes a tour of the Jack Daniel Distillery)
• A Collection of Items Autographed by Homer Hickam, Author of Rocket Boys
• A “The Power to Go” Canvas by Artist Paul Calle
• The Painting, “Outdoor Saturn V,” Signed by Artist Cynthia Nichols
• “Fall Smoky Mountain Scenery,” a Painting by Artist Mark Keathley
• Two Separate Lots Containing Items Autographed by Story Musgrave
• A Space-Worn Polo Shirt Autographed by its Wearer, Hoot Gibson
• A Copy of “Star Wars” Sheet Music, Autographed by Composer John Willaims

It’s quite a collection of items up for auction! The only disappointment, no doubt, is that you must be present to bid in the silent auction!

But it’s not too late to get yourself down to Huntsville, AL for the 2009 Reunion Weekend!

The list of the new class of Space Camp Hall of Fame inductees has been released!

The official press release will no doubt be up soon, but here are the names with details and photos to follow soon!:

Friend of SPACE CAMP

• Jim Allan - Austin, TX

Former Employee

• Jerry Gleason - Madison, AL

Former Camper

• Robert Pearlman - Houston, TX

Konrad Dannenberg passed away this morning.

Konrad Dannenberg was, of course, one of the original German rocket scientists to have come over from Peenemunde with Wernher von Braun shortly before the end of World War II. He was 96 years old and is survived by his wife, Jackie.

The Huntsville Times has a short writeup, as does WHNT.

There will be a memorial service at the Davidson Center at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center at 2pm this Friday.

In the 1980s, Konrad Dannenberg could often be found at the Space Center giving lectures to the campers.

In his memory, here’s a video from 1987 of Konrad Dannenberg taking an Adult Space Academy group on a tour of Rocket Park.

Couldn’t justify spending $150 for a ticket to the Apollo Anniversary Gala? No worries! You can still see it live over the web!

From Al Whitaker, the Media Relations Director at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, here’s how it’s going to go:

For those of you sitting in front of your computers Saturday night, surf over to www.spacecamp.com and look for the link for the live streaming webcast of the Year of Apollo Gala from the Space & Rocket Center.

They're putting us up around 5:30 or 6PM, and the program starts at 7PM. It will only last about 90 minutes or so, but you'll get to see one of the last of the Mercury astronauts, Scott Carpenter, along with Dick Gordon, Alan Bean, Owen Garriott, Joe Kerwin, Jack Lousma, Walt Cunningham and several others. Dr. George Mueller, who was the head of NASA's Office of Manned Space Flight during the Apollo program will be there.

We "found" THE original concept drawing of Skylab that Mueller sketched (it has been hanging in a man's den for about 40 years) and we'll unveil that, plus the Apollo 12 Mobile Quarantine Facility (which we also literally found in a field behind an abandoned fish hatchery in South Alabama), has been completely restored and will be unveiled. All in all, if there's even a little bit of a space geek in ya, you'll love it!

And from home, you'll have the best seat in the house!

Also, if you’re in the area tomorrow, there will be a book signing at the Space & Rocket Center open to the general public. From Space Camp’s Calender of Events:

All Proceeds from the sale of signed copies of Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story will be donated to the Skylab Restoration

Cost of book will be $80 and signed by authors David Hill, Astronaut Owen Garriot, and Astronaut Joe Kerwin as well as Homer Hickman and astronauts Alan Bean and Jack Lousma

Also featured will be The All-American Boys signed by Astronaut Walter Cunningham and Space signed by Roger Reid of Discovering Alabama

Art and collectibles signed by artist Paul Calle

Tomorrow’s a big day at the Space & Rocket Center! And I really can’t encourage you enough to spend the $80 if you can. The Skylab mock-up has been rotting outside of the Space & Rocket Center for some years now and the all-volunteer effort to restore it has met resistance at times (from the Space Center itself, oddly enough). Proceeds from the signing will no doubt go a long way to getting such a wonderful artifact restored and back to presentable condition.

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It will no doubt come as a great relief to many to find out that work is currently underway to repair Pathfinder.

Here are some shots taken yesterday that show how they’ve taped off the entirety of Shuttle Park and that they have equipment and manpower on the task.

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It seems the Discovery mission isn't the only shuttle dealing with debris issues and damage.

Unfortunately, Pathfinder has spent many, many years outside in the hot and humid North Alabama weather.

Just last night, a massive piece of Pathfinder broke loose and fell off! The piece came from the belly of the orbiter under what would be the crew section. The External Tank is currently keeping the section from falling to the ground entirely.

Shuttle Park is currently roped off to visitors while they assess the damage.

As you can tell from the pictures, it's bad.

The Saturn V has finally been restored. Now it is clearly Pathfinder's turn.

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Space Camp has posted video from the Good Morning America spots onto their YouTube page.

Good stuff!

Take a gander, if you weren't able (read: awake) to watch!

The opening:


The rest:


The no doubt provided Space Camp (and Dreamland Barbeque) with great exposure that will hopefully lead to some more Space Camp bookings in the near future!

Space Camp sent out an email to let people know that our Saturn V will be featured on Good Morning America tomorrow morning as one of the "7 Wonders of America."

From the email:

Good Morning America has named our Saturn V 500D/F as one of the 7 Wonders of America. The official announcement will be broadcast on Monday, May 12, and staff from ABC Television are already here in Huntsville preparing for the show that will broadcast from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. (Eastern and Central times)

ABC will do a series of "live shots" from the Davidson Center during the two-hour program and will discuss our newly-restored Saturn V rocket — the effort to build that rocket and send humans to the moon, our efforts to preserve it, Huntsvilles and Marshall Space Flight Center's rich heritage in the space program, and SPACE CAMP's efforts to ignite the interest of America's next generation of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and explorers.

Be sure to tune in! And if you happen to be one of the newly hired counselors having just arrived for training, be sure to go out and wave to America!

It seems the Space Center hasn't been taking care of all of their artifacts. Say it isn't so!

NASA Watch had this post the other day.

In short, if you visited the Space Center around the mid-90s, you would have been able to walk though the Skylab trainer built.

Well, it's been sitting outside the back of the Space Center for years and it seems recent efforts to protect and preserve have been thwarted by the Space Center.

There's also a swift kick at the end alleging (uh, with photographic evidence) that the USSRC has been letting people climb around Casper for a small $10,000 fee.

I can only hope that nothing is as bad as it looks from this piece and that the Space & Rocket Center curator would want to do everything in her power to preserve to the best of her abilities every piece of space history in her care. Anything less would be a true shame.

I was able to get down to our favorite museum on the opening day of the Saturn V last week.

I thought you'd like to see the absolutely beautiful building the USSRC has!



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This morning's Rocket Roll! event at the Space & Rocket Center was a resounding success. Despite the rain, the turnout was respectable and the Saturn V has started its journey to its new home.

For those of you that missed the event, I present to you the crescendo:



The move should more-or-less be finished by the time the Saturn V reunion comes around! If you're able to, you should get your tickets and come by this Friday.

Rocket Park is sure going to look awfully strange without that Saturn V there...
...don't forget about the webcams to see that space get awfully bare.

To provide an update regarding the post about MSFC tours resuming, it seems that there is one sticking point holding up tours.

It seems Marshall doesn't want Space Camp to use busses that aren't able to comply with the Americans with Disabilities act and the Space Center doesn't currently have any that do.

So until the Space Camp can get a few busses that meet the ADA (or retrofit current ones....if that's possible), the tours will be a no go.

So it may be a little while.

Yep! The rumor going around (well, the rumor I'm starting here) is that Marshall Space Flight Center tours will resume.

The date hasn't yet been completely nailed down, but I'm told that it will be sometime within the next month.

A great part of the Space Camp experience is about to return!

Well, he was arrested a little while ago, and now former USSRC CEO Mike Wing has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in Texas. Do they execute for wire fraud in Texas?

Anyway, you can read an article of it here.

From the article:
At the time of Wing's ouster in 1999, space center officials said they had not known when they hired him that he had been barred from selling franchises in Arizona for a market research company due to misrepresentations. Wing disputed that account and told the Times he had never been accused of wrongdoing.

Whoops!

So the episode of the Amazing Race filmed this past Summer at Space Camp has come and gone.

It's always fun to get a look at the place on national television! You're very photogenic, Space Camp!

A thorough write-up of the episode can be found at this website if you weren't able to catch the episode when it aired:

The remaining four teams are now on the second bus (the Aiellos, missing the point, think they beat the Weavers; no, you're tied) to the mystery location, which turns out to be Huntsville, Alabama. The clue upon arriving directs them to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. Luckily this proves easy to find, being as there's a giant rocket sticking up into the sky at it.

Episode Three of The Amazing Race 8 which is featuring contestants at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center will air this coming Tuesday at 9PM (EDT).

You're going to have two opportunities to see the Space & Rocket Center on television!

First, contestants of the show, "The Amazing Race," stopped by the USSRC to film segments of the contestants in the museum, Rocket Park, and Aviation Challenge.

Details can be read here and here.

From the Huntsville Times:

Between midnight and 4 a.m., one by one, a fleet of eight to 10 GMC Yukons rolled out of the parking lot and sloshed down Interstate 565, got off at exit 15 and headed toward the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.

Motorists driving by on the interstate had no idea they were passing celebrities - members of the eighth installment of the CBS reality series "The Amazing Race."

Also, to be aired the week after this one, is a segment on "The Early Show." One of the anchors attended Pilot/Copilot Aviation Challenge, and a news crew was on hand to cover it.

From the article:

"All those memories came crashing back to me" during a day at U.S. Space Camp at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center on Saturday said Syler, who was in town to attend the Parent/Child Aviation Challenge with her son, Cole Parham, 7.

The two were having a regular Space Camp experience, except for the video crew and television producer following them. The footage will be used for a program on Syler's trip to Space Camp to be broadcast the week of July 25.

Syler's co-anchors, Harry Smith, Hannah Storm and Julie Chen, and weatherman Dave Price will each attend a summer camp for a series called "The Early Show Goes to Camp."

This is certainly great exposure for Space Camp, Aviation Challenge, and the USSRC!

It seems as if the USSRC has installed a Web Cam in Rocket Park! And it's a pretty good one, at that!

The thing updates in real time so you can even see visitors and campers touring the park!

Additionally, they are in the process of moving the Saturn V for restoration...check out the crane!

The Space & Rocket Center has had posted online their 2004 annual report. It's pretty interesting, so I wanted to make sure everyone who came by here had the opportunity to view it. It has some pretty interesting data. Revenue reports, expenses, etc. It also contains a mention of parties from Germany, Mexico, Australia, Malaysia, and Korea interested in becoming Space Camp licensees!

Additionally, scattered throughout the report are blurbs on great alumni doing great things. Included among them, of course, is our first alumni astronaut, Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger!

According to the Tuscaloosa News, former USSRC CEO Mike Wing has failed to pay on time the agreed upon settlement of $200,000. As a result of not paying by the deadline, Mr. Wing is now required, according to the settlement, to pay $500,000 instead.

That's quite a large error on his part, I'd say!

An article, Retro Rocket, was published in today's Washington Post. The article discusses how the Saturn Vs in Houston and Huntsville are beginning the first stages of reconditioning much like the work the Saturn V in Florida received.

This story was linked to on the front page of Slashdot this morning, and it even included a link to the USSRCs Save the Saturn V page! With the large number of eyeballs Slashdot receives every day, one can only hope it will translate into more donations for the USSRC Saturn V.

I made my donation today! Have you?!

Again, for some idea of just what it took to restore the Saturn V in Florida so you can better appreciate where the money is going to go, you can read the article from Air & Space Magazine.

On June 19th, the US Space & Rocket Center will be having a gathering to help raise funds to restore their mighty Saturn V.

Buzz Aldrin will be in attendance as well food and entertainment!

Tickets are only $25 and include a CD and T-Shirt to commemorate the event

So if you're going to be in the Huntsville area, you should come by!

You can see the flyer here, which includes info regarding how/where to purchase tickets, as well as other additional information.

Also, to see what an effort it takes to restore one of these mighty vehicles, you really should read the posted article from an issue of Air & Space about what it took to restore KSC's Saturn V.

Hope to see you there!

The USSRC will be featured on TLC's show, While You Were Out. The program will also feature astronaut Robert Springer.

This episode airs tonight and is entitled, "Skylab."

Check your local listings for program time.

Enjoy!

Well, the wait is finally over. The Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission has new members.

The article, including the list of the Board members, can be found here.

Personally, I'm disappointed that at least one of a couple of individuals I had in mind weren't appointed.

It really just looks like an uninspired list of bureaucrats and businessmen. Essential, to be sure, but the Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission surely shouldn't be composed only of members such as these.

Hopefully, in time, they will prove me wrong. And if not, nine members' terms will expire next year, and a second chance will be granted.

Alabama Governor Bob Riley is expected to announce the new board for the Space & Rocket Center this week, as this article states.

I suppose that would mean today or tomorrow. We'll just have to wait and see.

Well, the Friday deadline has come and gone so technically the members of the Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission are now former members of the Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission.

Yet this is only technically as there has been no word from Alabama Governor Bob Riley or his office regarding the matter.

The Huntsville times has posted an articled about it here.

This should prove to be yet another interesting week.

An article in the Huntsville Times reports that Alabama Governor Bob Riley has asked for every member of the commission that oversees the US Space & Rocket Center to resign.

This should prove to be an interesting week. In the meantime, be sure to read the article.

This is just a reminder regarding a story I posted last December that tonight on the USA network, as they present a showing of Apollo 13 at 7pm tonight, they'll also be showing segments shot at the USSRC.

here again is a link to the article which talks about tonight's event.


So tune in and enjoy!

If you happen to tune into USA's broadcast of Apollo 13 on February 19 (at 7pm), you're in for a familiar sight.

An article in the Huntsville Times last week reported that USA Network was down in huntsville to tape segments for the show "Ready for the Weekend Movie."

The segments were filmed around the Space Center and Space Camp facilities where some of the cast of Apollo 13 went to train before shooting the movie (one week before I arrived to Camp one year, I might add).

So tune in and enjoy!

So I was flipping through the channels and I thought I saw some rockets out a window on the screen. Not just any rockets though, but USSRC rockets!

Sure enough, TLC's show, "A Dating Story" was at the USSRC!

It's on right now as I write this (1:20EST). If you're on the west coast, you can probably catch it in just under 3 hours.

If you catch this too late (and since the show only has 10 minutes left, you probably will), it might be rerun later. Then again, they seem to curn these shows out one after another, so perhaps not...

It also must have been shot a while ago becasue the Columbia simulator was still on the TCF.

At any rate, it's a fun watch!

It would appear as if one can now get a US Space & Rocket Center Master Card now!

Along with MBNA, they seem to be offering a Platinum Master Card. If you apply now, you even get a free USSRC T-Shirt!

Using this credit card will benefit the U.S. Space & Rocket Center and its programs. Since the credit card you currently use most often probably isn't doing all that much for you, why not get this one and let it do some good for the USSRC?!

Pictures of the two available designs (shamelessly stolen from the application page):

So go get one, and remember: don't leave Earth without it! (sorry...couldn't resist saying it...come to think of it, they should totally steal that slogan!)

The USSRC's SpaceDome IMAX Theater has just received an equipment upgrade to allow it to run films in excess of 2 hours. This is a large upgrade from the previous limit of 55 minutes.

This comes at a wonderful time, as IMAX has just mastered Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones onto 70mm IMAX film.

The USSRC will be showing Episode II 4 times daily beginning November 1st and running until January 2nd. Ticket prices are $10.00 for adults, $8.00 for children (an increase, if I am remembering their old prices correctly). Of course, the prices are half that if you get a membership.

A full list of theaters showing Episode II can be found here.

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center is beginning a project to refurbish the Saturn V which, after 30 years of being outside in Rocket Park, has corroded both inside and out. Plans are underway to refurbish the Saturn V and move it inside, away from the elements.

However, like almost everything else, such a project takes money! And you can donate! Donations are tax deductible, and will go a long way towards making a more suitable home for the Saturn V.

If you've been down to Florida, I think they are planning a similar facility for their Saturn V.

To get a better understanding of what's involved in restoring a Saturn V, locate the January 1997 copy of Air & Space Magazine, as it details the restoration process of the Saturn V down at The Cape.

Head on over to spacecamp.com and click on "Save the Saturn V Campaign" for more information as well as the place to donate!


Update: Well, I just donated my 50 bucks...it's not much, I'm sure, when compared to what they need for the project, but if everyone who's been to camp donated just a couple of bucks, they'd have more than enough! So, I donated for a couple of campers (or something)...why don't you as well?!