8/09/2018

ROCKET CITY ALABAMA


HUNTSVILLE : The birth place of Nasa's rockets lies in the land of cotton, hundreds of miles from Cape Canaveral's launch pads in Florida.

From the first US satellites and astronauts, to the Apollo moon shots, to the space shuttles and now Nasa's still-in-development Space Launch System, rocket history lies in Huntsville, Alabama.

Huntsville's nickname, Rocket City, is thanks largely to Wernher von Braun and his team of fellow German born racketeers who settled here in the 1950s.

The city has been home of to the Army's Redstone Arsenal and Nasa's Mashall Space Flight Center. But its now attracting new generation of engineers, scientists and techies.

Tourists come for the history. Kids and adults come to learn at a Space Camp.

It was von Braun, Marshall's first director, who wanted to show case Huntsville rocket development and testing. Thus was born the US Space and Rocket Center, an official Nasa tourist spot that houses one of only three remaining Saturn V moon rockets, this one a National Historic Landmark.

Von Braun planted the seed for Space camp as well. Why band camp, football camp, and cheerleading camp., but no science camp, he wondered.

He didn't live long enough to see Space Camp open in 1982, but since then 800,000 students/youngsters and grown-up space fans have attended daylong, weekend or week-long sessions with space, robotics and aviation themes.

Its address? One Tranquility Base, Huntsville.

As in ''Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.,'' words spoken by astronaut Nael Armstrong when he set foot on the moon. The 50th anniversary of first moon-steps is next July.

Huntsville plans to shoot up thousands of little rockets in commemoration.

The DNA from America's original rocket force still permeates Huntsville, according to Deborah Barnhart, the US Space and Rocket Rocket Center's executive director.

''It's Alabama's No. 1 paid tourist attraction, with bus tours into the restricted Redstone and Marshall, and wild rocket-style rides like Space Shot and G-Force Accelerator.

''We're all  space geeks and we love it,'' Barnhart said.

The Honor and Serving of latest Operational Research on Nasa continues.

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