major_clanger | Please do not shoot at the Saturn V

As well as being extremely disrespectful to an important piece of space history, it is also against the law. Even in Alabama.

Shooting of Saturn V rocket in Davidson Center could be a federal offense

Newsgroups: sci.space, alt.folklore.science From: [OBSOLETE_ADDRESS] (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey) Date: 2 Jun 93 17:52:36 -0600 Local: Wed, Jun 2 1993 6:52 pm Subject: ET Foam Honed I was in Huntsville, Alabama last week for the annual International Space Development Conference, where members of the National Space Society and fellow travelers meet. Of course I had to visit the Alabama Space and Rocket Center, home of Space Camp, a Saturn V, and other wonders. The weirdest thing I saw was their Shuttle. They have created a complete launch assembly by mounting a test (non-flying) Shuttle Orbiter, the *Pathfinder*, on a big orange External Tank, and strapping Solid Rocket Boosters to it. (Trivia buffs tell me these are "filament-wound" SRBs, atype which also never flew.) The whole thing is mounted on tall concrete pylons slanting into the sky, so you can walk underneath the belly of it and gawk. It's orbiter-on-top, by the way, the way you think it *ought* to look, rather than orbiter-on-bottom the way it actually flies into space. As Josh Hopkins ([OBSOLETE_ADDRESS]) and I strolled around it, I looked closely at the external tank and noticed something strange. The tank is covered with a few inches of orange insulating foam. The foam had a lot of little dark marks on it, about a centimeter long. At first I thought the damage must come from birds pecking at the tank or something. But how would birds attack the underside of a big cylinder with nowhere to perch? Gradually I realized that the scars were pennies! People fling pennies into the foam, like ninjas hurling shuriken, and if they're moving fast enough they stick. In a few places I could see ballpoint pens and screwdrivers sticking out of the ET. I was looking at hundreds of pennies embedded in the foam of the tank. Kind of a high-tech wishing well. As I told Josh, I guess this monument symbolizes NASA's recipe for a space program: Take one Shuttle, then keep throwing money at it. -- O~~* /_) ' / / /_/ ' , , ' ,_ _ \|/ - ~ -~~~~~~~~~~~/_) / / / / / / (_) (_) / / / _\~~~~~~~~~~~zap! / \ (_) (_) / | \ | | Bill Higgins Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory \ / Bitnet: [OBSOLETE_ADDRESS] - - Internet: [OBSOLETE_ADDRESS] ~ SPAN/Hepnet: [OBSOLETE_ADDRESS]