The Saturn IB rocket has overlooked Interstate 65 for more than 40 years. [Photo by Getty Images]
Near the start of the year, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, announced that the Saturn IB rocket that stands off Interstate 65 welcoming people into the state of Alabama will be taken down in 2023 due to the rocket being in a poor condition. While there are plans to hopefully restore or move the rocket elsewhere, it may serve as a reminder that space exploration is not generally associated with Alabama. Florida really gets all the credit with space exploration due to it being the location where the Apollo 11 rocket launched from the Kennedy space center; however that rocket was created in Huntsville, Alabama, and was one of the most important innovations in human history as it put the first humans on the moon.
In spring of 1950, Dr. Wernher von Braun came to Huntsville after being transferred to Redstone Arsenal. Originally, Huntsville had been used to produce pyrotechnical devices during the second World War, deeming it as a perfect place for the development of rockets in the space race with the Soviet Union, after the launch of Sputnik I in 1957. The next year in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) came to Alabama upon the founding of the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) at Redstone.
In 1961, a Redstone rocket sent Alan Sheppard into a suborbital flight after the Soviet Union’s cosmonaut Yuri Gargan successfully made an orbit in one revolution around the Earth, and later that same year, the Von Braun team developed the Saturn I, with a successful test launch. Then from 1968 to 1972, the Apollo program successfully carried out one mission around the Earth, three missions around the moon, and finally sent six missions that allowed twelve humans to walk on the moon.
The MSFC has been involved with the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope and also with the creation of the International Space Station (ISS), building and designing modules that would become a part of it. Science done on the ISS is also monitored within the Payload Operations Center at MSFC.
Today, Huntsville, Alabama, displays its history through its museums such as the Space and Rocket Center and carries on its legacy through Space Camp, which has drawn almost a million trainees of every age and from all over the world since its inception by Von Braun. The most notable signs of space exploration in northern Alabama are its model rockets standing tall and proud at the Space and Rocket Center. Hopefully funds will be obtained to save the rocket (or erect a new one) that once stood at the welcome center in Limestone County, allowing others to learn about the role Alabama plays in space exploration.
In 1961, a Redstone rocket sent Alan Sheppard into a suborbital flight after the Soviet Union’s cosmonaut Yuri Gargan successfully made an orbit in one revolution around the Earth, and later that same year, the Von Braun team developed the Saturn I, with a successful test launch. Then from 1968 to 1972, the Apollo program successfully carried out one mission around the Earth, three missions around the moon, and finally sent six missions that allowed twelve humans to walk on the moon.
The MSFC has been involved with the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope and also with the creation of the International Space Station (ISS), building and designing modules that would become a part of it. Science done on the ISS is also monitored within the Payload Operations Center at MSFC.
Today, Huntsville, Alabama, displays its history through its museums such as the Space and Rocket Center and carries on its legacy through Space Camp, which has drawn almost a million trainees of every age and from all over the world since its inception by Von Braun. The most notable signs of space exploration in northern Alabama are its model rockets standing tall and proud at the Space and Rocket Center. Hopefully funds will be obtained to save the rocket (or erect a new one) that once stood at the welcome center in Limestone County, allowing others to learn about the role Alabama plays in space exploration.
Learn more:
- https://www.spacecamp.com/about/ourhistory
- http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/s137#:~:text=The%20National%20Aeronautics%20and%20Space,at%20Redstone%20Arsenal%20in%20Huntsville.
- https://www.al.com/news/2023/03/10-million-fundraiser-proposed-to-save-alabama-rest-stop-rocket-questions-loom.html
- http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/Article/h-2349
About the Author
John Morgan Underwood is from Springville, Alabama, and is a student at the University of Alabama majoring in English and minoring in News and Media. His family moved around a lot during his childhood before residing in Alabama.
RSS Feed