I had mentioned in the ShoutBox a couple of times that I got a job as a Museum Guide at Earths Largest Space Museum here in my hometown of Huntsville Alabama.
The real name is the "U.S. Space and Rocket Center" and it is located 3 miles from my house. Sometimes I ride my bicycle because it only takes me 15 minutes to get there.
Been working there for about 3 months now and I seriously love this job. I have been keeping up with the space program since the mid 60's when I was old enough to understand what was happening. When they hired me, I told them that I already know the tours already. It is wildly easier than being a stagehand which I am still doing in a limited amount. Plus customers visiting a museum are incredibly polite and thankful , you don't get much of that in the entertainment business.
Over the last few months I have been taking a lot of pictures, so i will present a small sample that gives a good overview of the place.
The Admissions Desk at the main entrance and most of my coworkers. This is one days around Halloween where we all dressed up in costume.
The space suits from the different programs: Mercury , Gemini . Apollo and Shuttle
This is a Skylab mockup using real Apollo hardware
Miss Baker was a squirrel monkey who in 1959 became one of the first two animals launched into space by the United States and safely returned.
Miss Baker lived at the Naval Aerospace Medical Center in Pensacola, Florida until 1971.
In 1971, Miss Baker moved to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where she entertained museum visitors and drew 100–150 letters a day from school children.
In 1984, Miss Baker died of kidney failure at a clinic at Auburn University after attaining the record for oldest living squirrel monkey. She is buried on the grounds at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. Her tombstone routinely has one or more bananas on top.
Saturn 1 rocket and full sized Lunar Lander model
The 8 engines under the Saturn 1 rocket
Full sized Saturn V model standing over 350 feet out in the parking lot near the Saturn V Hall
We have the Capsule that was Apollo 16 and named Casper during the mission
The main part of the Museum is The Davidson Center which has the Saturn V Hall. It contains all of the Apollo Artifacts
On the left is the Apollo 16 capsule and one of it's parachutes, on the right is a full sized Lunar Lander model, Overhead is the Apollo Capsule and the emergency escape tower system, in the middle are the engines that powered the Lander on Decent and Accent
It is named the Saturn V Hall because it contains a complete Saturn V rocket. This was one of the first versions of the Saturn V ever built. It has fully working hardware but was never intended to fly.
This rocket was built to prove out fit and finish of all the parts and used to check fit on Test Stands and Launch pads
The First Stage had 5 F-1 engines producing a total of 7.5 million pounds of thrust, burning 543,000 gallons of fuel in just 2 minutes 30 seconds, getting the rocket to 42 miles altitude
We have a full sized Space Shuttle. The parts shown are actual space hardware: The orange fuel tank and the white solid rocket motors. The Shuttle Orbiter has been taken down to be rebuilt. The orbiter was named Pathfinder and was not built for space or even gliding. It had the correct weight and shape of the real Orbiter and was used to check fit on the 747 transport aircraft among other things
This is 'Mannequin Skywalker. Flew the last unmanned test of Blue Origin's "New Shepard" rocket on Jan. 14, 2021. He is full of sensors that insured he was safe during the flight. This is one of our newest exhibits
A really neat Space Station exhibit to walk through. The kids in Space Camp use this area a lot.
Space Camp is operated at the Space & Rocket center and I see those kids getting escorted around all over the place.
If you are ever in the North Alabama area, I recommend this place highly !
Here are some more links if you are interested . . .
www.rocketcenter.com/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Space_%26_Rocket_Centerwww.spacecamp.com/