Transcript:
Melea Hames: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Unexpected Adventures in North Alabama, part of the Destination Marketing Podcast network. Today's episode is all about the US Space & Rocket Center. We are live on location here. It is so amazing and so exciting. I have Pat Emmons with me today and she is the senior director of public and media relations here at the US Space & Rocket Center. Thank you so much for being here.
Pat Emmons: [00:00:26] It's a thrill, Melea. Great to talk to you and all your listeners.
Melea Hames: [00:00:29] Yeah, thanks for the tour that we just got. It was very informative and it just really got us even more excited for this. Tell us a little about yourself.
Pat Emmons: [00:00:39] Well, my background is as a journalist. I was a journalist for many years as a newspaper reporter here in north Alabama, in fact. I was really excited to have the opportunity to come here. I've been here for eight and a half years at the Rocket Center. After a career where I met people all the time and went places all the time, different places all the time, I thought, I'm going to go to one place and be there all the time. How is this going to work for me and my personality? But the exciting thing about being here at the US Space & Rocket Center is the world comes here and I get to meet so many interesting people both through just our visitors, our special events. So many famous people have walked through the doors of the center. We have lots of film projects here, so I get to work with really interesting people all the time. It's just a fascinating place. It's wonderful to be able to tell the story of all the great things that have happened here in Alabama regards to space exploration.
Melea Hames: [00:01:35] Yeah. We talked about this and we were looking at the Saturn V rocket about how – I grew up in North Alabama. I've driven by it. I've come here on field trips. It wasn't until we had an international bloggers group that came several years ago and there was an event in the Davidson Center and we were sitting there and these people from all over the world were looking around and just in awe. And I'm thinking, it's a Rocket Center. But I got to see it from their eyes. I thought I have been desensitized because I've lived here for all my life. It was really cool to have my eyes open. Because now when I come, it's just like, “whoa, wow, watch this. Look at this.”
Pat Emmons: [00:02:27] One of my favorite things to do is round the corner of the Saturn V Hall before the people that I'm leading get a chance to walk in there so that I can turn around and watch their faces as they see the F-1 engines as they round that corner. Because it truly is all inspiring. If you take the time to not say, hey, yeah, whatever, rockets, I live in the Rocket City, yeah, whatever. You have the opportunity to realize extraordinary accomplishments that have happened here. One of the things I love to point out to people and something to think about the next time you come to the Rocket Center is a lot of this technology was done before computers. These were people with pieces of paper and slide rules and pencils. They calculated these enormous feats of space exploration in their heads and in a collaboration that we now use even in our Space Camp programs.
Because, of course, the US Space & Rocket Center is famously home to Space Camp, which is a program that we have operated for 40 years now. We bring children, adults, and families from all over the world to experience that same sort of, teamwork, critical thinking, problem-solving skills that those early engineers used to put us on the moon.
Melea Hames: [00:03:39] Yeah. That is so amazing to think that pencil and paper were used. I mean, that is way above my head, as in English. I used to teach English. I mean, it's like words are my thing, not numbers. That's just clearly amazing.
Pat Emmons: [00:03:52] It's extraordinary. They were brilliant, but also they worked together and built on each other's strengths. It's truly an incredible accomplishment of humankind. I'd like to let people ponder that as they walk through. Because I think if you stop for a moment and I, too, am an English major and a storyteller, so for me, this is really a story of a human accomplishment. If you put it in that perspective, even if we're not necessarily technical, I think we can also draw a great deal from a visit here just by understanding a lot of those aspects of what went into making some really extraordinary feats happen.
Melea Hames: [00:04:35] Yeah, it's so cool. Oh, my goodness. I'm so excited about being here and doing this. Okay. Well, tell us a little background on the US Space & Rocket Center.
Pat Emmons: [00:04:45] The US Space & Rocket Center opened in the 1970s. Of course, we landed on the moon for the very first time in 1969 with the Saturn V rocket, which is what was developed here in Huntsville. If you grew up here in Huntsville back in the 50s and 60s, even still today, you and I were talking about that earlier, you still hear some booms and bangs from our Redstone Arsenal, which is right across the fence line from us here at the-
Melea Hames: [00:05:09] All the way in Decatur.
Pat Emmons: [00:05:10] All the way in Decatur. But back in the day when they were testing those big F-1 engines, people here would tell me that the chops keys on their tables bounced around. I think there may have been a cracked window or two along the way. But, yeah, it truly was a time of transformation for this city. But it was something that was very important to Warren Von Brown who, of course, was the leader of the rocket team when they came to Huntsville in 1950 as part of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency. Because essentially, they were bringing the technology from World War II from Germany to America. It was that foundation that ultimately resulted in a very much larger object that wasn't a missile, but indeed a rocket that was going to space.
That collaboration between Americans and Germans who worked here at Marshall Space Flight Center, ultimately when it was formed after NASA was formed from that ballistic missile agency. Those individuals created Huntsville that we know today. That was something that was very important to the team, that the effort be recognized, that no one forgot what Alabama's contribution was to space exploration. For that effort, we opened in 1970. We have continued to grow both in terms of visitors from all over the world, but also footprints since that time opening the building we're sitting in right now, which is- that houses the Saturn V in 2008.
As I said, we opened Space Camp 40 years ago in 1982. We’ve had more than a million graduates through that program. A couple of them on board the International Space Station right now, in fact. We have been able to watch thousands and thousands of children come here to get a start on a dream of being part of space exploration or just really great team members no matter what they're doing. But today, we are thrilled to be back. The pandemic was a tough time for us. We had so many people who stepped forward to help us. We have got exciting projects going on, we have a new building in development right now that will house our Space Camp operations that it opens this spring. We got a little sneak peek. I took you into the planetarium so you could see.
Melea Hames: [00:07:34] That was amazing, by the way, everyone.
Pat Emmons: [00:07:36] Extraordinary planetarium. Really, truly world-class, where we're using the latest images from the James Webb Space Telescope to create original programming every day. Cocktails and Cosmos on Friday nights where you can have a date night out and get to explore the universe. We have many more projects underway and just exciting things happening all the time here.
Melea Hames: [00:07:59] Yeah. Well, I know you mentioned that one question you get asked quite a bit is that these rockets actually go up into space, so you want to tell us about some of the displays and the rockets here.
Pat Emmons: [00:08:09] Right. Other than the giant Saturn V that people see when they're driving down 565, everything here, that is a model but everything, and that is a one-to-one scale model of the Saturn V. It was built and erected for the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, which was in 1999. But other than that, everything you see here is going to be an actual artifact. It's going to be something that was either a prototype. It might have been a surplus item. It could have been a test article. Everything you see here with some very few exceptions of models from here and there are going to be things that were actually part of the program. We also have on display military aircraft as well, because the US Army gave the State of Alabama the land for this facility. As part of our charter, we tell the story of Redstone Arsenal as well.
Melea Hames: [00:09:01] Yeah, that is so cool. You can actually see things that either were in space or were useful to go into space. That's even amazing, too.
Pat Emmons: [00:09:10] We do have things that also went to space, too, including the Apollo 16 capsule, which is truly an extraordinary thing to see as with many of our artifacts, is owned by the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It is on permanent loan to us, as is the Saturn V rocket. The national historic Saturn V rocket, which is inside the Davidson Center for Space Exploration. That rocket is the Smithsonian's largest artifact.
Melea Hames: [00:09:37] Wow.
Pat Emmons: [00:09:38] Yeah.
Melea Hames: [00:09:40] It’s here. That’s so cool.
Pat Emmons: [00:09:40] A lot of people don’t know it’s right here. We are a Smithsonian affiliate as well as the official visitor center for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
Melea Hames: [00:09:46] Wow. See? It's so amazing here. So much history, so much significance just right here. This is why Huntsville is a rocket city.
Pat Emmons: [00:09:57] That's correct. Just a minute ago, when we were walking through the original museum, which if you've ever noticed looks kind of like a bunker. That's intentional. It was meant to look like a bunker that you would sit in to watch a rocket test. That was part of that architecture of the '60s and early '70s, that brutalist architecture. You've ever wondered why it looks like it does, it actually had a symbolic meaning to it. But when we were walking through the original museum portion of the facility earlier, we heard a lady say randomly she didn't see us, had no idea who we were. She said, looking at all this stuff is making me emotional. We do see that a lot, where people just realized just how extraordinary these accomplishments have been.
Melea Hames: [00:10:42] Yeah. That is so cool. Well, tell us a little bit about some of the simulators, like the underwater simulator that you can do.
Pat Emmons: [00:10:53] We walk past the underwater astronaut trainer. That's something we've always used in our space camp programs for advanced-level students. Do scuba as part of their space camp experience. That's because astronauts train in neutral buoyancy or underwater for their spacewalks or their EVAs, extravehicular activities in space talk. But we also now have that experience available to our visitors as well. Both as a- you can register in advance and do scuba while you're here. You can also do some of our activities. We have a fun activity called Diver Plus, which is a VR experience where you get in the water, and so you're floating and it's got haptic sensors. You move. I'm moving my hands as I'm saying this, it pushes you back and forth so that you're experiencing physically what you're seeing.
We also have an activity called diver C-trek, which you put on a helmet for that and you are able to walk on the base of UAT, the Underwater Astronaut Trainer. One of the fun facts about our Underwater Astronaut Trainer is that it was designed and championed by Homer Hickam. If people in the area know who he is, our local celebrity author, Homer Hickam, who wrote Rocket Boys, which was turned into the movie October Sky. That's his baby. He is very proud of that and everything that it's contributed to our space plant programs over the years. Homer actually serves on our board. Our board is appointed by the governor because we are a state agency, so he is part of our commission who oversees the operations of the Rocket Center.
Melea Hames: [00:12:32] Cool. Yeah. I remember when I taught over in Madison City for a couple of years. That was required summer reading, was October sky.
Pat Emmons: [00:12:39] It's a fantastic book and a great movie.
Melea Hames: [00:12:42] That is so cool. Well, tell us about some of the other movies that have been made here or celebrities that have come here, because you mentioned there were a bunch.
Pat Emmons: [00:12:52] Yes. Well, we've had several movies filmed here, of course. Very famously, Space Camp, the movie, which became sort of a cult classic after it aired in 1986. Many, many a child watched that movie to the point of wearing out their VHS tapes. We still hear those stories today from astrophysicists and astronauts and all the like because they love that concept. But it was filmed here. We've had other movies filmed here that were specifically about Space Camp. A Smile as Big as the Moon, which was about the first group of students with disabilities who attended Space Camp, something that we do regularly. As a matter of fact, just a couple of weeks ago, we finished our Space Camp for the blind and visually impaired that we do every year.
Melea Hames: [00:13:34] Oh, wow. That’s cool.
Pat Emmons: [00:13:37] It's fantastic. These kids come from all over the world and they have the best time. It's really an amazing thing to watch.
We also have, in terms of other movies we filmed here, we did a movie called Space Warriors here. We've had countless film shoots for television shows, for commercials, for movies, other movies. Some of which I can't talk about just right now. But some other things that we have on the horizon, secrets. There's always something really exciting going on here. I have a program. A group coming over from Ireland this winter to do a film project. It's really all the time. It goes back to what we were talking about earlier, that the US Space & Rocket Center is an extraordinary place. That you shouldn't just drive by and take for granted because truly people come here from all over the world to be amazed.
Melea Hames: [00:14:29] Yeah. They are for sure. Okay. What are some activities that are here at the Space & Rocket Center that are popular with visitors and kids?
Pat Emmons: [00:14:39] Well, one of the things that we did, and we did this during the pandemic, because we have a lot of the areas, were not with our Space Camp programs all but shut down or operating very minimally. We started offering some of our simulations that we do in our camp programs to just museum visitors. They become so popular that we've added those as an additional experience that you can add to your visit here. If you want to ride the famous Multi-Axis trainer or the spinney thing, that is very much part of the Space Camp experience, that’s something you can do.
We have some of our flight simulators from our Aviation Challenge Camp program that you can also do. We have a VR experience that gives you now that’s a Space Camp activity. But we have a VR experience that simulates one of the astronauts going to the moon with the Apollo 11 on the Apollo 11 mission, which has really been very popular. Of course, that incredible planetarium that you can also add to that.
Melea Hames: [00:15:40] Yeah, that's amazing.
Pat Emmons: [00:15:41] Then, of course, there's our exterior simulators, moonshot, and G-force, which have been here and have been a long popular things for people to do while they're here. If you like to spin around or go really high, I am neither of those.
Melea Hames: [00:15:40] Yeah, I'm with you on that. I’ll let my niece do it and tell me about it.
Pat Emmons: [00:15:58] But they’re super popular. Exactly. Let someone else take those for me.
Melea Hames: [00:16:04] Yes, I saw the G-Force and then I saw it going around. I thought, no, probably better, not better.
Pat Emmons: [00:16:10] Maybe not for me.
Melea Hames: [00:16:12] Yeah. I remember coming here, I think it was in the 7th grade. It was the center of gravity where they not really spin you around, but move you around. They're like, cause I'm like, I always get motion sickness. I'm that kid that gets sick on the roller coasters, I don't ride them. They're like, oh, no, you won't get sick. Your stomach is the center of gravity. I thought, okay, I want to see what this is like because I always get sick. I got on it and yeah, I got sick.
Pat Emmons: [00:16:42] Fair enough. That's it. Sometimes people are going to get sick no matter what.
Melea Hames: [00:16:45] All lies, lies.
Pat Emmons: [00:16:48] Well, with our Multi-Axis trainer, we tell you the same thing. I've only seen a couple of people get sick on it over the years. Those were, I hate to say it, the people who are going to say we're going to get sick.
Melea Hames: [00:16:59] Yeah. Well, maybe we talk ourselves into it maybe.
Pat Emmons: [00:17:03] Maybe. But some people do have sensitivities more than others. That's one thing, particularly in our Space Camp programs. If a child does not want to do an activity, we're not going to force them to do it. No, you're going to do it. But we also encourage them to push themselves past their normal boundaries. Because sometimes when we do something and we conquer a fear, it gives us so much more strength going forward. So much more confidence to try something else that maybe we really could do if we just pushed ourselves a little bit.
Melea Hames: [00:17:31] Yeah. That is very true. There have been things that I've seen that has been very true with me, that I've been scared to death and I did it, and I thought, this is awesome.
Pat Emmons: [00:17:39] Right. Glad I didn't miss that.
Melea Hames: [00:17:40] Yes. That is very true. Tell us, what is your favorite part about the US Space & Rocket Center?
Pat Emmons: [00:17:49] My favorite part? That's hard to say. I do think it's that sense of wonder I see in people's eyes when they are amazed by what they see and hearing the stories of these, both the early explorers. But also where we're going today. We have so much happening, and we opened a new exhibit called Dare to Explore Frontiers of Space. It's going to be an evolving space where we continue to add more and more pieces of things that are happening today. Not just history, but things that are happening today and even concepts for the future. I think that's my favorite part about being here is just being part of that truly inspirational mission to inspire people.
Our mission here is to inspire the spirit of discovery through education and this immersive experience. I think that's something we developed internally, and we truly believe it. I embrace it with all of our hearts here, that this is a mission. When you see people be amazed and inspired by that mission, it really drives home that what you're doing here matters. That's not something everybody gets to do. Just to do something matters. We truly do that here at the US Space & Rocket Center.
Melea Hames: [00:19:05] That was a beautiful answer. I love that. Well, thank you so much for being here today. It's been such a pleasure to have a tour with you and to talk with you. Thank you.
Pat Emmons: [00:19:16] Absolutely. It's my pleasure. I would welcome everyone to come and check out the new things. If you haven't been to the intuitive planetarium, come now. It is absolutely mind-blowing. It's something that even if you've been to the Space & Rocket Center before, you may not have seen that yet. Just come and be proud of what this community has done and continues to do to expand all of our horizons.
Melea Hames: [00:19:41] Yeah. Well, tell our listeners where they can find the Rocket Center on social media.
Pat Emmons: [00:19:47] They can follow us on all platforms at Rocket Center USA. Of course, rocketcenter.com is our website, which has all the information you need to know to plan your visit.
Melea Hames: [00:19:59] Side note. They also have an amazing gift shop. You don't want to miss that. I mean, it is truly amazing.
Pat Emmons: [00:20:06] It's so much fun. So much fun stuff.
Melea Hames: [00:20:08] Tons of cool space stuff.
Pat Emmons: [00:20:09] I have to keep my husband out of there. He always wants to buy all the things.
Melea Hames: [00:20:14] All right. Well, that is a wrap at our on-location episode at the US Space & Rocket Center. Don't forget that North Alabama social platforms are linked in the description. Subscribe. If you like our podcast, we would appreciate a review. Thanks for joining us. We'll be back next time with more about North Alabama Adventures. This has been another episode of The Unexpected Adventures in North Alabama Podcast, part of the Destination Marketing Podcast Network, hosted by Melea Hames and produced by Relic.
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