![]() JASMINE WHITE: We are going to resume Orion's countdown on my mark - five, four, three. The future of space can be seen a few miles away here at Space Camp. LEWIS: Tucked away in a windowless room, controllers keep tabs on the ISS crew around the clock using as many as nine computer screens each to work with them on their experiments. All science experiments that are performed on the International Space Station are operated and run through this facility. JEREMY DEL GRECO: This is science central for International Space Station. Even today Marshall continues to play a critical but unseen role, says Jeremy Del Greco, NASA's payload operations director. And it's currently working on the next U.S. ![]() After Apollo and the Saturn V, Marshall would develop the space shuttle's engines and the Hubble Space Telescope. When NASA opened the Marshall Space Flight Center in 1960, von Braun was its first director. LEWIS: Von Braun and his engineers helped launch the U.S.' first orbital satellite in 1958 and the first American to space in 1961. NASA historian Brian Odom says it took off when German engineer Werhner von Braun brought his rocket team to work at the Army's Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville.īRIAN ODOM: He stands, really, at the top of a process that unfolded in the 1950s, number one, which was turning space travel into something that was - once had been science fiction into what would become a reality. The region traces its space heritage to the 1950s. LEWIS: In fact, half the graduates each year at the University of Alabama in Huntsville are in engineering or science. As he gazes across the large, sparkling workspace, he says Huntsville is more than just buildings.ĮVANS: I mean, you can't get a better base of talented rocket scientists and engineers, both mature and, you know, at STEM-centric universities that we can reach into for our future needs. TYLER EVANS: This facility is all about the 21st century and the future. Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin plans to build its next-generation engines here, and Aerojet Rocketdyne opened an advanced manufacturing facility a few months ago. ![]() More than a hundred other companies are nearby, including Boeing and United Launch Alliance. The aerospace heavyweights are here - Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon. It's one of the largest research parks in the country. LEWIS: Dynetics is one of almost 300 companies based at Cummings Research Park in Huntsville. We'd like to welcome you to our powering lunar exploration signing ceremony with Maxar Technologies and Dynetics. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Good afternoon, everyone. This month, the region's economic cheerleader celebrated yet another partnership with NASA. Huntsville has lived and breathed space for 60 years, and it's never slowed down. LEWIS: That's Deborah Barnhart, the CEO of the U.S. It's our Golden Gate Bridge here, and we're very proud of that. And driving into this north Alabama town, you see proof of that right away.ĭEBORAH BARNHART: The Saturn V rocket in front of the Rocket Center is, in fact, the beacon of our city. RUSSELL LEWIS, BYLINE: There's a saying that you can't get to the moon without first going through Huntsville. To mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the historic Apollo 11 flight, NPR's Russell Lewis visits the place known as Rocket City. Another city is just as important to NASA - Huntsville, Ala. space program, Cape Canaveral in Florida and the Johnson Space Center in Houston might come to mind.
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