The massive Saturn 1B rocket is an iconic reminder of Alabama’s role in the space race and bringing man to the Moon. The rocket at the Alabama Welcome Center has welcomed visitors from Tennessee and points north for 44 years, but no more. The rocket is now being taken down. Efforts by the State Legislature to keep the rocket ultimately failed, and NASA, which still owns the rocket, is taking it down because of its deteriorating condition.
“The Saturn 1B rocket is an iconic symbol for the entire state,” State Senator Tom Butler (R-Madison) told WSFA News in Montgomery. “I think it makes for a very sad day to such a symbol taken down.”
Butler had been the author of legislation to save the rocket. That legislation passed the Alabama Senate and was signed by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey. However, the rocket is owned by the Space and Rocket Center, and they made the decision to take it down.
The 224-foot-tall Saturn 1B Rocket was built in the 1960s to take the Apollo module into space. The Saturn 1B rocket is a more powerful 1967 upgrade of the original Saturn 1. Three astronauts were killed in a dress rehearsal of the Saturn 1B mission – later renamed as Apollo 1. All the moon missions were carried into space by Saturn rockets. The Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville designed, tested, and built the Saturn rockets. The Saturns were the most powerful rockets ever made until the Space Launch System (SLS) currently being prepped to take man back to the Moon after a decades-long absence.
It will take 3 to 5 weeks to fully disassemble the rocket.
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