Day six, the last day of 1998 we drive the short distance (about an hour drive) from where we had spent the night at a truck stop to Huntsville, Alabama. Sleeping in the back of our truck at truck stops was actually pretty good. For the first half of the trip we had a foam cushion from our camper trailer and plenty of blankets and sleeping bags. We purchased a small air mattress that made it even nicer. Even though the outside temp got down to freezing or below at times it was not at all bad. The worst thing (at least for Debbie) was the other trucks themselves. They do sometimes make a lot of noise. I just sleep right through it but sometime it does disturb her.
Huntsville is the home of Redstone Arsenal, Marshal Space Flight Center, and Huntsville Space and Rocket Center. Huntsville Space and Rocket Center contains the famous Space Camp for children and adults. There is an enormous amount of memorabilia there, and it is displayed in such a way that you can really get involved in the displays. They have both a museum type display inside the building, and a park type display of many different rockets and associated equipment outside. It seems that every major site we visited on this trip had an SR71 "blackbird" spy plane on display. This here was the 5th one of the trip. We also saw our second Saturn 5 rocket (used in the apollo moon program) meaning that we have now seen all but one of them remaining in existance (the last is in Florida at the cape).
As you approach the Center you are presented with a view of several of the larger rockets that had been originally used in the space program.
We started out our visit here by picking up some souvenirs then heading out on a tour of the Redstone Missle Arsenal which is adjacent to the main complex lands. In addition to this there is a large track of land owned by the army for their uses. Below is one of the test stands used in developing the Redstone Rocket and later ones. This is where Warner Von Braun did his rocket tests. The other photo is the sign showing the Marshal Space Flight Center with some of the International Space Station Training mockups behind them.
Here is a couple photos of the International Space Center training mockups. The first is the interior of the space station, the second is of one of the hatches.
Now we are back at the Space Center, and went though the interior displays.
They included this Lunar Excursion Module control panel area, and this piece of the US Space Station "Skylab" that survived the reentry over Australia.
You can get involved in many of the displays like these two. The first is of Debbie taking a whirl at landing the Space Shuttle. The second is me inside an Apollo Space Capsule.
Now we go outside to the Rocket Park.
In the center of the park is a Saturn 1b rocket which you can walk under.
They also have a Saturn V rocket. Here is a view down it's length, and a close up of the engines.
Here are a couple of the other smaller rockets on display.
Here is me checking out a portable radar/rocket launching truck.
Here is a full size display of the Space Shuttle mounted in the park.
Here is some of the equipment for space camp. First is the "mission Control" simulation they use, the second the 3 axis motion trainer.
After visiting Huntsville we left and traveled into Mississippi and found a nice little county park with camping areas to spend the night. It was a nice little New Years Eve celebration.
