Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Wednesday 19 June 2019

Rocket City, Alabama: Space history and an eye on the future

By MARCIA DUNN behind computers as flight
Associated Press controllers for the Mars mis-
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — The sion. They even live in dor-
birthplace of NASA’s rock- mitories that look as though
ets lies in the land of cot- they belong on the moon
ton, hundreds of miles from or Mars. Camp counsel-
Cape Canaveral’s launch ors — called crew trainers
pads. — are mostly university stu-
From the first U.S. satellites dents or recent graduates
and astronauts, to the Apol- in STEM fields — science,
lo moon shots, to the space technology, engineering
shuttles and now NASA’s or math. In July, campers
still-in-development Space got to meet the first Space
Launch System, rocket his- Camp graduate to actual-
tory inundates Huntsville, ly launch into space, Dottie
Alabama. Metcalf-Lindenburger. She
Huntsville’s nickname, attended a Space Acad-
Rocket City, is thanks largely In this July 13, 2018 photo, the last standing Saturn V rocket can be seen at the U.S. Space & emy for older students the
to Wernher von Braun and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala. same month that shuttle
his team of fellow German- Associated Press Discovery delivered the
born rocketeers who set- space fans have attend- search aims to return astro- mobbed a recent one. Bev- Hubble Space Telescope
tled here in the 1950s. The ed daylong, weekend or nauts to the moon and on erages included T-Minus, a to orbit in 1990. She went
city has long been home weeklong sessions with to Mars. “We’re looking to locally made, tangerine- on to fly aboard Discovery
to the Army’s Redstone space, robotics and avia- the future, really looking to flavored beer. Monkeynaut in 2010 as a NASA astro-
Arsenal and NASA’s Mar- tion themes. travel in space, trying to fig- brew is also a favorite. naut-educator.
shall Space Flight Center. Its address? One Tranquil- ure out the problems of liv- “It’s probably the most sci- Space Camp’s simulations
But now it’s attracting new ity Base, Huntsville. As in ing and working in space,” entific small town in Amer- are “as realistic as they
generations of engineers, “Houston, Tranquility Base Barnhart said. ica,” said retired Apollo can be for what’s done
scientists and techies. Tour- here. The Eagle has land- Despite Huntsville’s role, program worker Billy Neal, in a week,” she said. “We
ists come for the history. ed,” words spoken by as- author Homer Hickam, a a volunteer docent who can’t train kids on a whole
Kids and adults come to tronaut Neil Armstrong longtime Huntsville resident shed his white lab coat for bunch of switches and cir-
learn at Space Camp. when he landed on the who’s now retired from that night’s Biergarten. cuit breakers and systems,
It was von Braun, Marshall’s moon with Buzz Aldrin. The NASA, sees Cape Canav- Miss Baker, the squirrel but we can give them the
first director, who wanted 50th anniversary of those eral, Florida, and Houston monkey who preceded big idea.”
to showcase Huntsville’s first moon steps is next July. getting most of the at- Mercury astronauts into Her goal is to help campers
rocket development and Huntsville plans to shoot up tention when it comes to space in 1959, is buried at “see that what they were
testing. Thus was born the thousands of little rockets in space travel. Hickam’s the U.S. Space and Rocket doing this week isn’t so very
U.S. Space and Rocket commemoration. 1998 memoir “Rocket Boys” Center. Space Campers different than what we did
Center , an official NASA The DNA from America’s became the movie “Oc- sometimes leave bananas in the program and how it
tourist spot that houses original rocket force still tober Sky.” “You look at all at her tombstone. prepares you for real space
one of only three remain- permeates Huntsville, ac- this whole great big Saturn Nearly 1,000 campers from ... and then also to hope-
ing Saturn V moon rockets, cording to Deborah Barn- V, and the only part that around the globe swarmed fully impart some things
this one a National Historic hart, the U.S. Space and Houston was responsible for the rocket center during like all of us are going to
Landmark. Rocket Center’s executive was, I don’t know. This little a typical week this sum- go through rough times,
Von Braun planted the director. It’s Alabama’s No. part right here,” Hickam mer. They launched small but there are ways to stay
seed for Space Camp as 1 paid tourist attraction, said, laughing, as he point- rockets and got the feel plugged in.”
well. Why band camp, with bus tours into the re- ed to the capsule at the tip of walking in space while As Metcalf-Lindenburger
football camp and cheer- stricted Redstone and Mar- of the 363-foot-long rocket, dangling from the ceiling in shook hands with each of
leading camp, but no sci- shall, and wild rocket-style stretching horizontally in its harnesses or scuba diving the nearly 1,000 graduates
ence camp, he wondered. rides like Space Shot and massive exhibit hall. in a water tank smaller but at week’s end, another
He didn’t live long enough G-Force Accelerator. German-style beer gar- similar to what astronauts Space Camp graduate,
to see Space Camp open “We’re all space geeks and dens are hosted beneath once used for practice. Serena Aunon-Chancellor,
in 1982 at the rocket cen- we love it,” Barnhart said. the Saturn V every Thurs- They were strapped into a orbited Earth aboard the
ter, but since then, 800,000 But Hunstville isn’t just day evening, spring to fall. mock cockpit coming in International Space Sta-
youngsters and grown-up about history. Ongoing re- Engineers and their families for a Mars landing and sat tion. The roster of Space
Camp alumni includes
many other engineers and
scientists, among them two
others who lived on the
space station and SpaceX
founder Elon Musk, who at-
tended as an adult during
his early tech days.
“This is a thinly veiled work-
force development pro-
gram,” Barnhart said.
“We’re trying to inspire
people in STEM. We’re try-
ing to inspire aviation-ori-
In this July 13, 2018 photo, visitors tour the Orion modules in the In this July 13, 2018 photo, NASA astronaut Dottie Metcalf ented people” as well as
space camp program at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in discusses space travel and her experiences in space at the U.S. robotics and cyber-security
Huntsville, Ala. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala. specialists.q
Associated Press Associated Press