Stennis space center, Stennisphere and the new Infinity Ctr

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airkale
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Stennis space center, Stennisphere and the new Infinity Ctr

Post by airkale »

Gents,

Just visited the new Infinity Science Center and wanted to make a quick report. The building itself is really nice and new. Its also a bigger facility. However, i was very dissaponted with the calibre of the museum.

This new facility replaces "the Launchpad". This building was located at the Mississippi visitors center at Exit 2 off I-10. The new Infinity center is located behind the welcome center and has its own complex, parking lot, etc.

For those of you that haven't been around the Stennis Space center over the course of the last decade, originally, visitors could drive into the space center grounds to the visitor's center. The visitor's center was named the Stennisphere. After 9-11, the space center was closed to visitors and eventually when things calmed down, the Launchpad was opened off site at the Mississippi welcome center.

In the days of the Launchpad, people parked at the welcome center and gathered at the Launchpad building to board busses to the Stennisphere.

The Stenisphere itself was a pretty nice museum. The highlight was an Apollo CM. On the contrary, the new Infinity Science center is not dedicated to space flight. It has a portion that is a space museum, and an empty main floor which will become a Earth Sciences related exhibit area.

To get down to brass tacks, the new museum is very week compared to the old. The CM is not even present. Thankfully, the bus tour is still conducted of the actual facility, although, there is no stop at the old museum, rocket park, or theater.

I don't know if anyone knows what happen to all the exhibits and artifacts of the old museum, but I sure hope somehow they make it to the new location. Unfourtunatly, as I said earlier, space doesn't look like the primary focus.

After hunting around on the internet, there is no mention of what will happen to the old museum or any of the old stuff. Its kinda sad, since things are throttling down for US manned space flight, that old war dog museums aren't keeping the "dream alive".
Kale

Space Camp(Thiokol, 94,P/S: Columbia),Space Academy(Boeing,95,CMDR: Discovery),AC Mach II("Ace",97),Adult Alumni Academy(Columbia,07),Adult Alumni Academy(Columbia,08). Been a frequent visitor to USSRC over all the years since.
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Hotdog
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Post by Hotdog »

Thanks for the report Kale. Sad to hear about this happening at Stennis. I have never been there, but I kind of see the same thing happening in Huntsville as well. Instead of bringing in more space stuff like shuttle artifacts, Sprocket in recent years has been "branching out" into other areas such as energy and earth sciences. The old museum, which used to be filled with Skylabs and satellites and rocket engines is now full of military exhibits while pushing the space stuff out into the Davidson Center. What was once "Earth's Largest Space Museum" is now "Earth's Largest Space/Science/Military and Travelling Exhibit Museum". The reason is purely economical. Museums around the country are taking big hits and losing money in this economy. Jason can tell you all about this since the same thing is happening at the museum he works at.

It's gotta be distracting when trying to teach kids about space when there's dinosaurs and Harry Potter movie props to look at instead. But these are the tricks museums are having to perform in order to turn a profit these days just to stay open and keep people coming in the door. Sign of the times I suppose. The good news is, Dr. Barnhart is back in charge at Sprocket, and in the short time she's been back, things are looking up. I'm confident she will turn things around at Sprocket and we will be back in the green again, and no longer need to depend on travelling science circuses to bring in visitors. We will get our space museum back, it will just take awhile to phase it back in. Just a bit of growing pains and a paradigm shift we are going through at the moment. That's my two cents anyway!
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airkale
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Post by airkale »

Yea the last round we all hung out in Huntsville, was really the coming out of the "other" themed exhibits at the Space and Rocket Center. Now I guess that idea has finally made it down south...

My next adventure will be at Space Center Houston I guess. I haven't been there in the last year, so I need to get some time together and check it out. The orbiter model Discovery was recently moved from KSC to JSC, so it will be interesting to see how they display it. Everyone in Houston was mad about not getting an orbiter, which is understandable. I totally agree with thier position. Additionally, as of my last visit, Space Center Houston hadn't sold out to alternate exhibits, so that makes them even more diserving of a real bird.
Kale

Space Camp(Thiokol, 94,P/S: Columbia),Space Academy(Boeing,95,CMDR: Discovery),AC Mach II("Ace",97),Adult Alumni Academy(Columbia,07),Adult Alumni Academy(Columbia,08). Been a frequent visitor to USSRC over all the years since.
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