Alabama roadside rest stop about to lose its Saturn-1B rocket
Due to decay and rust, an Alabama roadside welcome center is about to lose the Saturn-1B rocket that has greeted visitors for the past 44 years.
The Welcome Center opened in 1977. In 1979, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center donated the Saturn 1B rocket, 168 feet high and 22 feet in diameter, to stand as a symbol of Huntsville’s role in the space program. The rocket was painted in 2006 and more maintenance was done starting in 2014, but it has steadily deteriorated since then.
“It was starting to fall apart,” [said Lee Sentell, director of the Alabama Tourism Department.] “We’ve gotten complaints for years about it.”
The cost to refurbish it appears to be too high. Maybe Sentell can get NASA to donate an SLS rocket for display, since it is very possible that several of those will become available at some point in the future when SpaceX’s much more efficient and cheaper Starship/Superheavy begins flying.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Due to decay and rust, an Alabama roadside welcome center is about to lose the Saturn-1B rocket that has greeted visitors for the past 44 years.
The Welcome Center opened in 1977. In 1979, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center donated the Saturn 1B rocket, 168 feet high and 22 feet in diameter, to stand as a symbol of Huntsville’s role in the space program. The rocket was painted in 2006 and more maintenance was done starting in 2014, but it has steadily deteriorated since then.
“It was starting to fall apart,” [said Lee Sentell, director of the Alabama Tourism Department.] “We’ve gotten complaints for years about it.”
The cost to refurbish it appears to be too high. Maybe Sentell can get NASA to donate an SLS rocket for display, since it is very possible that several of those will become available at some point in the future when SpaceX’s much more efficient and cheaper Starship/Superheavy begins flying.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
What a beautiful chance for a PR stunt from Space X.
They could donate either a Falcon 9 or an unflown Superheavy/Starship.
pzatchok: SpaceX builds nothing in Alabama. If anything, putting up a SpaceX rocket here would be embarrassing to that state.
Maybe we could put one across the state line in Tennessee. Tennessee never passes up a chance to gig Alabama.
And that is why its a great stunt Mr. Zimmerman. Just quietly threaten to do it and tell/ask the Alabama politicians to stop blocking his launches. Even if they are not blocking the launches they will look into it and talk to the correct people about it,
Never pass up a chance to threaten to embarrass your enemies. Its not like they will become even worse enemies.
Honestly, my real lament is that this Saturn IB was not used for an additional Skylab mission. (Which, you know, could also have boosted the station into a high enough orbit to stick around until the Shuttle could have visited it.)
Rather than do something actually useful with a pile of already built and paid-for hardware, what we ended up with was a stupidly expensive lawn ornament for the state of Alabama.
Q:
What is the composition of this Saturn 1B?
I thought all this Stuff was made out of aluminum and stainless steel?
Aluminum does rust over time.
And I do not think they were made of stainless steel. in any major way.
And they always leaked. That is why they were kept inside as much as possible.
This has me mad as a hornet. This was an ABMA rocket. Air Farce got it killed for Titans with solids. This is just its latest betrayal. In better news, Atlanta’s CNN is to be shuttered.
Texas. Put one up on one of the two routes that have the most relocating to Texas traffic. US Route 40 from New Mexico into Texas through Amarillo for Californians and US Route 30 from Louisiana into Texas through the little town of Waskorn for New Yorkers.
Heck, use two of the Starships from the Rocket Garden and put a Starship on each route. Abbott should pay for the moves. People can see what freedom can produce.
I remember that rest area quite well.
Keep his Texas rockets in Texas.
I find it galling that piece of crap Titan upper stage gets more love than an intact Saturn.
Maybe you all think we’re just spongers in my state in wanting to keep libertarians from strangling MSFC…we are quite the opposite:
https://redstate.com/jenniferoo/2023/01/20/feel-good-friday-an-alabama-farmer-secretly-pays-pharmacy-bills-for-people-in-his-town-n691333
pzatchok-
thanks for those factoids.
{‘metals’ are not my thing, I can solder copper water pipe together, that’s about it…]
Got sent down the rabbit hole looking up “aviation aluminum,” (at YT) and stumbled across 2 interesting factoids;
— SpaceX apparently uses a bit of brand name, “Airware® 2195,” for the Falcon 9, an Aluminum + Lithium alloy.
–“Transparent Aluminum” –>it’s a real thing, Aluminum-oxynitride. Brand name “ALON,” a transparent ceramic composed of aluminum, oxygen, and nitrogen. (Apparently Tesla uses this for the windows on its trucks.)