Cont'd...

I can see why Houston didn't get a 'real' shuttle when they were retired. We got the next best thing-- the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and the full-scale "model" of the shuttle orbiter which had been in Florida at KSC, which they have since modified and placed atop the SCA in "transport mode" of the shuttle. Of course one of my "pet peeves" is that basically NONE of the NASA displays have any rhyme or reason to them. The KSC "rocket garden" and display is quite well done and very well taken care of, for the most part, and of course they now have their shuttle "flying in space" inside a new building (which was under construction when I was there a few years ago). Of course IMHO it would have been MUCH more impressive for them to have a mock shuttle stack in "launching position" since that's where they were launched from! The KSC Saturn V was also restored and is inside, thankfully, but at a separate visitor center on the other side of the space center from the "main visitor center". Instead, California got one of the shuttles which will be displayed in "launch configuration" on a mock stack out there... IMHO it would have made MUCH more sense to have a display out there of the SCA and shuttle since that's how the shuttle was ferried back to Florida from the early missions and all the orbiters were flown to Florida from the factory in California where they were built on SCA's... Don't even get me started on the "Enterprise" rotting out in the weather on the deck of the aircraft carrier in New York. "Discovery" in the Smithsonian out at Dulles Airport at least makes sense... saw it too a year ago. Houston has a "Mercury Redstone" despite the fact that ALL the Mercury missions were launched AND controlled from the "Mercury Control" center at Cape Canaveral (which has since been demolished due to severe deterioration of the old "bunkhouse" which was swamped with moisture and simply rotted away-- what remains were salvageable are now at the "Astronaut Hall of Fame" just this side of the causeway leading out to KSC). JSC didn't come online until after the first Gemini mission was flown-- and there's NO display of the Gemini Titan currently at JSC, and of course NO Saturn IB, despite the fact that the Saturn IB was a major human space program launch vehicle during the Apollo 7, 3 Skylab flights, and Apollo/Soyuz Test Project... At least a "full scale mockup" would be nice to have, like the one standing outside the entry to USSRC (vertical Saturn V mockup). Houston has a Little Joe II, despite nearly all that taking place at White Sands in New Mexico, with Houston only in a supporting role.

Oh well... Just something that bugs me. At least they've now moved the last Saturn V S-IC stage from where it was rotting just inside the gate at Michoud in New Orleans up to the new "visitor center" they've constructed on I-10 between New Orleans and Gulfport, which is the visitor center for the Stennis Space Center; they've moved the visitor center outside the gates and compound of SSC to a "roadside park" just off I-10. At least you can still ride a bus thru SSC to see the test stands where they test fired all the S-IC stages, shuttle engines, etc... although it no longer stops inside the grounds of SSC... The security at Stennis is just crazy... I was there last year and it's not much better now that everything is "outside". It was bad enough when I was there about five years ago, and the visitor center was still "inside" the grounds at the old main building. When I was there in the late 90's, my then-girlfriend and I drove in from her home on the Picayune, Mississippi side, and basically had the run of the place, at least the visitor center and stuff, just showed your driver's license at the gate. Now it's like a fortress...

Anyway, just thought I'd pass that along... At least the State of Alabama is sprucing up the Saturn IB at the roadside park...

Later! OL J R

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