Plasma Processes recently participated in the “Revive the Saturn V” campaign supporting the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville Alabama. As part of the campaign, the center invited the public to share photos and stories about the Saturn V replica and even apply final touches to the project. A subset of the fundraising effort, dubbed “A Brush with Greatness,” provided donors who gave $1,000 the opportunity to help paint the lower section of the Saturn V replica when the work reached that point in the spring.
Scott O’Dell, Project Engineering Manager, puts his mark on the Saturn V restoration.
The U.S. Space & Rocket Center, which serves as the official visitor center for the Marshall Space Flight Center and is home to U.S. Space Camp, receives no funding from NASA or the federal government. While the center is a commission of Alabama, its state funding only covers three percent of its expenses. For projects like the Revive the Saturn V campaign, the center relies on donations.
The U.S. Space & Rocket Center, along with the City of Huntsville, is planning an Apollo 11 50th anniversary celebration that will include a Guinness World Records attempt at the most simultaneous rocket launches and an Apollo homecoming dinner. The replica Saturn V will stand at the center of these activities, hence the desire to have it looking its best.
The Revive the Saturn V campaign also falls under the center’s on-going Rocket Protector campaign, which is repairing and restoring the other historic missiles and launch vehicles that are displayed near the Saturn V replica in the center’s rocket and shuttle parks.
The 10-week “Revive the Saturn V” campaign seeks to raise $1.3 million to clean, reseal and paint the 363-foot-tall (110 meter) rocket replica that has stood at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center since 1999. Erected for the first moon landing’s 30th anniversary, the Saturn V replica has been exposed to 20 years of weathering and outdoor conditions, leaving it with peeling and missing paint, dirt and damage.
The campaign is also underwriting preventive maintenance to protect the Saturn V replica for the decades to come.