BACKROADS • NOVEMBER 2021
Page 18
Frontline Eurosports presents
BIG CITY GETAWAY U.S. SPACE AND ROCKET CENTER
1 TRANQUILITY BASE, HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA www.rocketcenter.com Space… the final frontier. How we all know these words. But Star Trek is a future that might yet be written. Our real space history is very much a reality and the single greatest place to experience this is outside of Huntsville, Alabama at the US. Space and Rocket Center. We visited there this past April. What started as a quick photo stop ended up with us burning the rest of the day in this magnificent museum. If you are like us then Space Program was the greatest “real” show we have ever seen. This is the place to be, Located alongside Interstate 565, right outside downtown Huntsville, this is a hard place to miss. Like the tiny town of Warren, New Hampshire… rockets tend to garner attention. The Redstone, basically a nuclear missile, is a full 83 and a half feet tall. As we rode up to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center it was hard to miss the Saturn V. At nearly 365 feet tall it tends to grab your attention. Whoa. The Saturn V was launched 13 times from Kennedy Space Center with no loss of crew or payload. As of 2021, the Saturn V remains the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket ever brought to operational status, and holds records for the heaviest payload launched and largest payload capacity to low Earth orbit of 310,000 lbs, which included the third stage and unburned propellant needed to send our guys to the Moon. You got that Alice….? Bang, zoom! But, as much as I am into big rockets, there are other aircraft and technology that the United States has brought forth, although this first aircraft that came rolling by was not a rocket. Staring at the Saturn V, as it dominated the vista as we rode up, I heard Shira say… “Well, aren’t you the lucky boy?” She knows where I am at. Three decades will do that. I glanced to my left and… there sat a Blackbird. And, not McCartney’s Blackbird by the way. The SR-71 was also the fastest and highest-flying air-breathing, piloted aircraft ever built, flying at 90,000 feet (20,000 feet above the U-2) and at more than 2,100 mph—literally faster than a speeding bullet, as in Los Angeles to DC in 64 minutes. We have been looking for one on eBay, but no luck so far. But this is called the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, as it is the largest collection of rocketry and space exploration on the planet. We had thought we’d drop by for a few quick images but, before we knew it, five hours had passed. I even became Astro-certified – kinda – with my ride on the multi-axis trainer. I was strapped and suspended into this contraption made of three tumbling rings. I was simultaneously rotated, somersaulted and rolled through said rings. Did I mention I did this right after
daytrip ideas to get out of the daily grind
