Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Friday 20 September 2019
Rocket City, Alabama: Space history and an eye on the future

By MARCIA DUNN science, technology, engi-
Associated Press neering or math.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — The In July, campers got to
birthplace of NASA's rock- meet the first Space Camp
ets lies in the land of cot- graduate to actually
ton, hundreds of miles from launch into space, Dottie
Cape Canaveral's launch Metcalf-Lindenburger. She
pads. attended a Space Acad-
From the first U.S. satellites emy for older students the
and astronauts, to the Apol- same month that shuttle
lo moon shots, to the space Discovery delivered the
shuttles and now NASA's Hubble Space Telescope
still-in-development Space to orbit in 1990. She went
Launch System, rocket his- on to fly aboard Discovery
tory inundates Huntsville, in 2010 as a NASA astro-
Alabama. In this July 13, 2019 photo, the last standing Saturn V rocket can be seen at the U.S. Space & Rocket naut-educator.
Huntsville's nickname, Rock- Center in Huntsville, Ala. Space Camp's simulations
et City, is thanks largely to Associated Press are "as realistic as they
Wernher von Braun and his can be for what's done
team of fellow German- to see Space Camp open shall, and wild rocket-style shed his white lab coat for in a week," she said. "We
born rocketeers who settled in 1982 at the rocket cen- rides like Space Shot and that night's Biergarten. can't train kids on a whole
here in the 1950s. The city ter, but since then, 800,000 G-Force Accelerator. Miss Baker, the squirrel bunch of switches and cir-
has long been home to the youngsters and grown-up "We're all space geeks and monkey who preceded cuit breakers and systems,
Army's Redstone Arsenal space fans have attend- we love it," Barnhart said. Mercury astronauts into but we can give them the
and NASA's Marshall Space ed daylong, weekend or But Hunstville isn't just about space in 1959, is buried at big idea."
Flight Center. But now it's weeklong sessions with history. Ongoing research the U.S. Space and Rocket Her goal is to help campers
attracting new generations space, robotics and avia- aims to return astronauts to Center. Space Campers "see that what they were
of engineers, scientists and tion themes. the moon and on to Mars. sometimes leave bananas doing this week isn't so very
techies. Tourists come for Its address? One Tranquil- "We're looking to the future, at her tombstone. different than what we did
the history. Kids and adults ity Base, Huntsville. As in really looking to travel in Nearly 1,000 campers from in the program and how it
come to learn at Space "Houston, Tranquility Base space, trying to figure out around the globe swarmed prepares you for real space
Camp. here. The Eagle has land- the problems of living and the rocket center during ... and then also to hope-
It was von Braun, Marshall's ed," words spoken by as- working in space," Barnhart a typical week this sum- fully impart some things
first director, who wanted tronaut Neil Armstrong said. mer. They launched small like all of us are going to
to showcase Huntsville's when he landed on the Despite Huntsville's role, rockets and got the feel go through rough times,
rocket development and moon with Buzz Aldrin. The author Homer Hickam, a of walking in space while but there are ways to stay
testing. Thus was born the 50th anniversary of those longtime Huntsville resident dangling from the ceiling in plugged in."
U.S. Space and Rocket first moon steps is next July. who's now retired from harnesses or scuba diving As Metcalf-Lindenburger
Center , an official NASA Huntsville plans to shoot up NASA, sees Cape Canav- in a water tank smaller but shook hands with each of
tourist spot that houses thousands of little rockets in eral, Florida, and Houston similar to what astronauts the nearly 1,000 graduates
one of only three remain- commemoration. getting most of the at- once used for practice. at week's end, another
ing Saturn V moon rockets, The DNA from America's tention when it comes to They were strapped into a Space Camp graduate,
this one a National Historic original rocket force still space travel. Hickam's 1998 mock cockpit coming in Serena Aunon-Chancellor,
Landmark. permeates Huntsville, ac- memoir "Rocket Boys" be- for a Mars landing and sat orbited Earth aboard the
Von Braun planted the cording to Deborah Barn- came the movie "October behind computers as flight International Space Sta-
seed for Space Camp as hart, the U.S. Space and Sky." controllers for the Mars mis- tion. The roster of Space
well. Why band camp, Rocket Center's executive "You look at all this whole sion. They even live in dor- Camp alumni includes
football camp and cheer- director. It's Alabama's No. great big Saturn V, and mitories that look as though many other engineers and
leading camp, but no sci- 1 paid tourist attraction, the only part that Houston they belong on the moon scientists, among them two
ence camp, he wondered. with bus tours into the re- was responsible for was, I or Mars. others who lived on the
He didn't live long enough stricted Redstone and Mar- don't know. This little part Camp counselors — called space station and SpaceX
right here," Hickam said, crew trainers — are mostly founder Elon Musk, who at-
laughing, as he pointed to university students or recent tended as an adult during
the capsule at the tip of graduates in STEM fields — his early tech days.q
the 363-foot-long rocket,
stretching horizontally in its
massive exhibit hall.
German-style beer gar-
dens are hosted beneath
the Saturn V every Thurs-
day evening, spring to fall.
Engineers and their families
mobbed a recent one. Bev-
erages included T-Minus, a
locally made, tangerine-
flavored beer. Monkeynaut
brew is also a favorite.
"It's probably the most sci-
In this July 13, 2019 photo, visitors tour the Orion modules in the entific small town in Amer- In this July 13, 2019 photo, NASA astronaut Dottie Metcalf dis-
space camp program at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in ica," said retired Apollo cusses space travel and her experiences in space at the U.S.
Huntsville, Ala. program worker Billy Neal, Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala.
Associated Press a volunteer docent who Associated Press