NASA is in My Hometown CategoriesMemories & Musings

NASA is in My Hometown

My hometown is Huntsville, Alabama. When I was growing up, Huntsville was known as a big country town. After recently seeing the launching failure of NASA’s Antares from the Virginia Coast on the news near Richmond, Virginia (where I presently live), it reminded me of NASA in my hometown. Huntsville was a really great place to be raised, live or visit. Often, if you live in a great historical place, you don’t realize the value of the areas you have at your fingertips until after you leave. Not only did I live in Huntsville, it wasn’t until I moved away and started a family that I visited this wonderful place called George C. Marshall Space Flight Center and learned how to appreciate it.

Huntsville became known as the Space and Rocket city. It got its name from the fact that over 50 years ago NASA Marshall Space Flight Center came to town. The Center has always been a fascinating place to visit, especially for the area school system. It is often a special-planned field trip for many.

The nation’s journey to space began over a half-century ago at NASA’s Center in Huntsville. A very dedicated group of engineers, scientists and business professionals lead the development and testing of tomorrow’s flagship space vehicles, space systems and rocket engines. They pursued cutting-edge scientific discoveries that improved and protected lives here on Earth. They worked to discover the secrets of the universe, to help increase our understanding of the cosmos and our place in it.

When my kids were 5 and 8 years old, we visited the Space Flight Center along with their cousins. It was great to be able to take my children back to visit a place that means so much to our nation’s history. Inside the Center was a display of a rocket, broken down into sections, so people can see how one is built. There was a gift store to buy memorabilia and there was also a movie theater. In the over 100-seat capacity theater, the seats were tilted as if one were actually riding in a rocket. Once everyone was seated, the movie began and you instantly felt like you were flying in space, almost as if you could reach out and touch the stars and the moon.

This was just one of the attractions we experienced. One of the other buildings on the campus was the Space Camp. Many children who are interested in space and astronomy come here and spend weeks at a time to understand and study the rocket and space systems. If you are ever in the area, you will be happy you visited the Center.

 

 

 

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Rita McCulloch is a mid generation Boomer who saw change and turmoil happen all around her from a vantage point as a young African American woman growing up in Huntsville, Alabama. Yet her focus was on family, community, church and helping others. She began helping seniors with their personal and financial needs as a volunteer while raising her family. She then founded a business, Boomer3Solutions, through which she helps educate, organize, and prepare families for their golden age years and minimize the stress that can be related to caregiving. Rita brings to Boomer Connections a strong background in elder care concerns and the many decisions facing their Boomer family members.