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Old 11-23-2016, 05:30 PM
luke strawwalker's Avatar
luke strawwalker luke strawwalker is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Needville and Shiner, TX
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Originally Posted by yousah
Was just in Huntsville last month and couldn't believe the poor condition of most of the rockets that were displayed outside. I'm sure the funding isn't there for restoration right now, but they need to do some mitigation right now to keep the damage from getting worse. Heck, even some caulk in the joints to keep water out would help.

The entrance fee was quite high considering most of the interior displays were being refurbished too.


Yes, EXACTLY!!!

The first time I visited USSRC in Huntsville was right after I got married back in late 2000, when I was living in Nashville with my new bride. I went down for the day one day while she was at work, because she wasn't terribly interested in it at the time and I was bored at the apartment and wanted to take a "day trip" somewhere.

The displays they had back then were MUCH more interesting and educational. They had a "Mittelwerk" display with the V-2 esconced in a "cave" relief setting with a slave laborer mannequin in period costume "working" on the V-2, and some displays and information about the creation and building of the V-2. There was also a full-scale model "cutaway" of an SRB booster cross-section set into the floor, and lots of other interesting displays-- just crammed full. This was LONG before the "Davidson Center" got built to house the Saturn V-- which is a GOOD thing, but it's a crying shame they didn't move ALL the rockets "inside" before they simply rot away. The Skylab trainer (which was a modified S-IVB stage) has sat outside for decades and has basically rotted away. Many of the rockets outside were showing signs of wear even back then.

We took Keira to see the USSRC a few years ago, and things had DEFINITELY changed for the worse. Gone were the main displays inside the "old building", including the V-2, which had been shoved outside into the 'rocket garden' on it's side on it's trolley. The old "Mittelwerk" display had been ripped out and that whole end of the building turned into a "roving attraction" area-- similar to how "Space Center Houston" (the Johnson Space Center visitor center) does it, with rotation "exhibits" of things like "gross-ology" and other such "fluff" pieces that have little/nothing to do with the exploration of space or the space program, but have lots of "kid friendly" interactive displays and games and other such things to keep those with short attention spans occupied... At least they had a "neat" display in there-- at the time there was a traveling display of "Ships of Star Wars" with various models and props from the movies, including the Millenium Falcon and Princess Leia's "Tantive IV" cruiser from the opening shot of "A New Hope", and various props/costumes, etc. They also had a kind of neat "build a robot" area where you constructed a "mars rover" from various parts and then "programmed" it to navigate a simple course with a few basic obstacles-- which Keira highly enjoyed... Most of the displays however had been "shoved out of the way" to make room for these "traveling exhibits" and were basically an "afterthought". Silly me-- going to a space museum expecting to see stuff about SPACE... LOL

Having gotten back into model rocketry and NASA history, and learning more about the historical space vehicles in their "rocket garden", it IMMEDIATELY became obvious to me there are several GLARING errors in the paint schemes and stuff of the rockets on display. It's not like one has to be a lifelong student of such things to notice them, either. It's a crying shame that the rockets are in SUCH poor condition, and that nobody seems to be willing to part with the money to restore them properly, and while doing so, give them accurate markings and stuff to the extent possible. The Skylab trainer was still out there, shoved in the back corner of the display area, still rotting away slowly but surely. There had been a Titan II (one of the few remaining decomissioned ones, which was there in 2000 but gone last time-- I later heard it had been "traded" to Houston in exchange for something else, and is eventually going to be restored and displayed there.)

At any rate, the entrance fees have gone up REMARKABLY and yet VERY LITTLE seems to be getting done about restoring or preserving the display vehicles, which IMHO is shameful. Folks knock on Houston for the sad state that the Saturn V there was in before its restoration a few years ago, which John Pursley was hired on as a consultant and worked on, as he knew more about the Saturn V than most of the folks presently working at NASA at the time did! He showed us slides and pictures and stuff of his work on the restoration of the JSC Saturn V, and the EXTREMELY poor condition some of the vehicle was in-- literally holes rotted through it in places, insulation rotted away, vermin and varmints making homes in places, paint gone, markings shot, some of the alloys used, particularly lightweight magnesium alloys, simply turned to swiss cheese or outright DUST and crumbling away... It had sat outside in the weather since the late 70's in the Houston heat and humidity, frequent rains, only a few miles from salt water and the salt air blowing in off the Gulf all summer long, plus all the "acid rain" and other pollutants from the nearby Houston Ship Channel and refineries along the Gulf Coast coming down in the rain... It took a LOT of work to restore that vehicle, and to construct even the plain steel building over it that is there presently... (which SUPPOSEDLY the plan is to raise 'enough money' to construct a much more visually appealing and "nice" visitor center around it-- the last few years though, there hasn't even been money to keep the air conditioner on inside the building-- an essential step to control the ever-present humidity and preserve the rocket, even though it IS at least now "inside" and out of the WORST of the weather... Houston's "rocket garden" displays are faring SOMEWHAT better than USSRC's... they recently refurbished and repainted the Apollo Little Joe II at SCH; hopefully they'll do the same to the "Mercury Redstone" there as well.

TBC... OL J R
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