USSRC news bits

[Boomerang]

I kust found these couple quick news tidbits on collectspace.com relating to the space and rocket center. Both relate to some exhibit changes 1 temporary 1 permanent. If you look at the saturn V webcam on the space camp website you can see the escape tower for the cev replica mentioned in the article sticking up near the first stage engines on the saturn V.


June 6, 2006 / 10:32 p.m. CT (0332 GMT Jun 7)
Lights off on Saturn: Every night since its construction in 1999, the vertical Saturn V rocket replica at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center has been bathed in light (sometimes pink) for all in Huntsville, Alabama to see. Every night that is, until tonight when the illumination was suspended. The lights that shone on the 36-story replica are being temporarily removed to make way, literally, for the real thing. The Center is poised to begin construction of a new 43,500 sq. ft. building to house its real Saturn V rocket vehicle, one of only 3 in existence. The spotlights were in the way. The replica will remain in the dark, save for its FAA-required clearance lights for about 16 months, the time needed to erect the building's 3 walls and a roof (the fourth wall will rise after the real Saturn V is rolled in).

June 5, 2006 / 2:32 p.m. CT (1932 GMT) with reporting by David Hitt
Former future CEV drops into museum: The U.S. Space & Rocket Center accepted today the donation of a full scale boilerplate crew exploration vehicle built by Lockheed Martin for water landing tests in 2005. The future CEV was made in support of NASA's former Orbital Space Plane Program at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Adjacent to the museum's Saturn V, the CEV's exhibit "serves as a reminder to those who see it that soon we will return to the moon and travel beyond," said USSRC's Chief Executive Officer Larry Capps at this morning's ribbon cutting ceremony. The capsule, primarily made of hand laid-up fiberglass with a Nomex honeycomb core, was debuted only hours before NASA Headquarters announced MSFC's role in the modern CEV/CLV program.
[/i]