The Return of Huntsville’s Spaceline
If you drive by the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, you’ll see the spaceline is back. This includes six historic rockets that stand tall in Rocket Row, as well as the Shuttle Pathfinder orbiter that is back on its stack. All represent more than seven decades in America’s space program, and the rockets’ return has been a long time coming. These goliaths stand once again in all their glory, shiny and squeaky clean, the result of major investments in the destination that brings many people to our city from all over the world.
On that note – more than 1 million people have now attended Space Camp since it opened, and it’s always fun to see who’s in a given group when you visit. On the day we walked around the Center, we met children from Florida, Virginia, Colorado, the Dominican Republic, Canada, and England. Another group of teenage campers had traveled in from Libya.
Shuttle Pathfinder is back
Dr. Kimberly Robinson and Scott Spearing with the newly restored Space Shuttle Pathfinder. Photos: U.S. Space & Rocket Center
On the very hot day we visited in late August, the Center was preparing for the hefty job of lifting the restored Shuttle Pathfinder back onto the stack. It was taken down in 2021 and has undergone $7.6 million of refurbishment since then. Lifting Pathfinder took two large cranes and great planning to coordinate! The renewed orbiter, now fully assembled with the body, wings, and engines, weighs more than 143 tons. The two bolts that anchor the back of the orbiter weigh 50 pounds apiece.
The orbiter “skin” is made of 3D-printed panels – 516 in all – and they are weather-coated with a special base primer and the primary color scheme of a flight orbiter added as well.
“We liked the idea of 3D printing, additive manufacturing for this because it is a big, current technology that so many of our aerospace companies are using,” said Ed Stewart, the museum’s curator. “It’s light, it’s adaptable, and astronauts use this technology on the International Space Station now to print hand tools and replacement parts they need. This is truly a full circle moment to have Pathfinder now made of this technology.”
Pathfinder was originally built in 1977 as a “mass simulator” to give NASA a way to practice how it would handle an actual Space Shuttle without worrying about damaging a flight article. After it was used by NASA, Pathfinder went on display in Tokyo for a year and was then moved to its permanent home at the Rocket Center in Huntsville in 1988.
Rocket Row
Photo: Hiroko Sedensky
Just down the path, six real rockets stand tall once again in Rocket Row. These were installed over the spring and summer after significant refurbishment, with some of the work completed at Marshall Space Flight Center and other work performed in Cullman. The Saturn I was refurbished in place a few years ago.
“We have prioritized these major projects because they are vitally important to our community,” said Dr. Kimberly Robinson, CEO and Executive Director of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. “These vehicles are more than hardware. They’re important symbols of the Rocket City’s legacy and ongoing contributions to exploration and serve as a tribute to all the people who poured their hearts and hard work into developing them. We are honored to display them and tell our city’s story to people who visit from all over the world.”
Where should you begin when looking at them, we asked? Curator Stewart said the story starts with the green Redstone Rocket used by the U.S. Army.
“To me, that’s the beginning because it is the foundation on which all the others are built on, as you move this way. Even the bigger diameter ones you see here, Jupiter and Juno II, evolved out of the Redstone missile,” Stewart shared.
Rocket Row also contains Jupiter, Jupiter-C, Juno II, and Mercury Redstone, all built by the Chrysler company and installed before the museum opened in 1970.
“They had been maintained, but this is the first time we took them all the way down,” said Stewart. “The base structures were redone, all aspects of repainting, repairing any damage to the exterior, interior, and just to show how big of a deal this is, the pipes that go up to support the rockets in the center are not the original pipes. These are brand new pipes, they dug up the foundations, dug in new foundations, with very deep holes and lots of concrete to act as the foundations for these rockets.”
“Everything out here is kind of a little steppingstone towards progress of space exploration,” Stewart added. “These lead to the development of the Saturn I and ultimately, the Saturn V, getting to the Apollo program and taking astronauts to the moon.”
Rocket Row also looks to the future with a new exhibit that showcases the engine pathfinder for the Space Launch System’s core stage. All of the parts for this were made in North Alabama.
Curator’s favorite rocket?
Ask Stewart which rocket is his favorite – he laughs and really has to think about it. He finally names the Jupiter. “It carried Baker and Able, the monkeys,” he said.
As a curator, Stewart is, in some ways, self-taught in his role. He first worked at the USSRC as a camp counselor in 2001 (these team members are now called crew trainers). In 2011, he joined the curation team, being so familiar with the campus. “I had learned about all the items we had, and having this nerdy brain, all these things getting stuck in my head, it was just a natural fit,” Stewart shared.
Marshall Connection & Honor Wall
The U.S. Space & Rocket Center serves as the official visitor center for Marshall Space Flight Center, and part of the work includes sharing the story of Marshall, including what was done in the past and what is happening currently.
The SLS engine pathfinder is one part of it, and inside the museum in the Dare to Explore exhibit, you can see one of Blue Origin’s BE-3U engines that will be used on the New Glenn rocket to be launched soon at Kennedy Space Center. You hear these engines tested in the evenings from historic Test Stand 4670 at MSFC.
To recognize Marshall employees past and present, the Marshall Retirees Association’s Space Exploration Honor Wall will include the names of more than 21,000 men and women who supported space exploration at MSFC, or at companies that have worked with NASA locally. The wall is up in Rocket Row, and panels are being raised to complete the project.
The Rocket Center is also still raising money to offset the cost of the Pathfinder project. More funds are needed to cover the cost of new lighting and additional repairs to Shuttle Park.
To support these efforts, visit rocketcenterfoundation.org.
Amphitheater
Rocket Park also features a new amphitheater perfect for events. Interested in hosting a community outing complete with catering, with a view under the rockets? The USSRC can take care of that for you. You’re not going to find a location that literally screams ‘Huntsville’ as this one does.
This article appeared in the October 2024 issue of Initiatives magazine, a publication of the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber. Link to magazine online: https://issuu.com/hsvchamber/docs/10-2024_initiatives_online
