The NASA rest stop rocket that has greeted people arriving to Alabama from Tennessee on Interstate 65 for more than four decades is rusting and needs to be replaced, and that welcome center has already been shut down, the state’s tourism director said.
“The fact that it’s been up there (so many) years is pretty amazing,” said Lee Sentell, director of the Alabama Tourism Department.
The rocket has been in place about 44 years. The Welcome Center opened in 1977. In 1979, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center donated the Saturn 1B rocket, 168 feet high and 22 feet in diameter, to stand as a symbol of Huntsville’s role in the space program. The rocket was painted in 2006 and more maintenance was done starting in 2014, but it has steadily deteriorated since then.
“It was starting to fall apart,” Sentell said. “We’ve gotten complaints for years about it.”
The Saturn 1B was one of three Saturn rockets developed in Huntsville. More powerful than the earlier Saturn 1, it was designed for orbital training missions with both the Apollo spacecraft and lunar model.
NASA ordered the completion of 12 Saturn 1B rockets, but only nine were launched supporting Apollo, Skylab and Apollo/Soyuz test project missions.
The rusting rocket still stands, but not for much longer. When it comes down, it will be like the state lost a beloved and familiar old friend.
“People when they see it, they think, ‘Oh, we’re almost in Alabama,’” Sentell said. For Alabamians headed north, it symbolized leaving home. For Midwesterners heading to the Gulf Coast, it was a landmark on the way to the beach.
Sentell was previously the first director of marketing at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville and recruited the first 100,000 students to Space Camp, so he’s especially aware of the emotional impact the rocket has had on the psyche of Alabama residents and visitors.
“We’ve been waiting because that particular welcome center has been on the schedule for about 10 years to be replaced,” Sentell said. “You’ve got to clean that out, tear it down.”
Restoring the rocket may be too expensive and impractical, Sentell said.
“Just to take it down, clean it up and put it back up, that’s a million dollars,” he said.
It also might not be the best idea, he said.
“It’s time for it to go,” Sentell said. “That was never intended to be anywhere that long.”
He’s hoping Huntsville can offer up a new icon for the future, illustrating NASA’s plan to return to the moon and eventually go to mars.
“What Huntsville needs to market is the next big project, going back to the moon, instead of people saying nothing ever changes,” Sentell said. “It really does. What Huntsville’s undergoing now is enormous success and redevelopment.”
Sentell would like to see something that symbolizes that.
“I think we can do the same thing with a current project, so that we’re still selling the idea of what’s happening at the Marshall Space Flight Center,” Sentell said. “I’m for putting up something that’s future.”
The project needs key input from NASA, he said.
“There’s discussion going on within the Marshall Space Flight Center,” Sentell said. “That’s who will decide what goes there.”
The Marshall Space Flight Center issued the following statement this week:
“This rocket was not built to withstand more than 40 years of continuous exposure to the elements of nature,” officials said. “The support structure has deteriorated over the years, the damage is too significant to repair, and could potentially pose a structural safety issue if left in place.”
It added:
“In partnership with the state of Alabama and the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, we are supporting the safe removal of the Saturn 1B rocket and looking toward what may take its place in the future.”
In the meantime, those looking for a welcome center coming south into Alabama on Interstate 65 have to pass by the rocket and wait a few extra miles.
“It’s already been relocated to Highway 31 in Athens,” Sentell said.
