Rockets At the Museum

On July 29, 1958, President Eisenhower signed an act that created NASA. The agency is, therefore, 60 years old this year. That is kind of a big deal.

In May, DARS outreach officer, George Sprague, put out an all-call to see is anyone could help the Eisenhower Birthplace Museum in Denison, Texas, with an exhibit. Since Denison happens to be my home town, I jumped on it.

George put me in touch with John Akers, who is the site manager there. After several emails back and forth, I packed up some scale models and headed north.

I actually brought more stuff than John needed. His display space is pretty small, and he has a limited amount of case size. He finally decided on a Nike Smoke, an Aerobee 350, a D-Region Tomahawk, and an IQSY Tomahawk, and an Aerobee-Hi. Here are the displays:

An overall shot of the room. The exhibit focused on Eisenhower's love of the idea of peaceful exploration of space. Hence, the rockets were all non-military research vehicles.

A closer view of the models with another information board in the background.

Still closer! Out of these models, four had been entered in Scale competitions between 1984 and 2010. The Nike Smoke just looked nice.

Unfortunately you can't read the info card, but it gave information on each of the five models, plus the fact that DARS had loaned then (along with my name).

The exhibit finally closed early this month and I was able to collect all the models. John was a great guy to work with and was very appreciative about our help. If you have a chance, I would suggest checking out the humble birthplace of the man who gave us NASA!

Until next time, fly 'em fast and loud!