posted July 24, 2005 12:02 AM               

Saturday's first-ever Space Memorabilia Show held at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio was by most accounts a success. GRC security recorded approximately 500 people in attendance in addition to the exhibitors, many of whom were collectors.

collectSPACE was proud to collaborate with Glenn Research Center's Visitor Center staff to bring together this event.

Thanks to Apogee Books, Boggs Space Books, Countdown Enterprises, Historic Space Systems, the International Women's Air & Space Museum, the NASA Glenn History Office and The Space Source for their attendence our first annual show. Collectors Jeff Bassett, Nazih Elhayek, David Taggert and Woody Witt were very kind to share their collections with the public.

A special thanks to Robert Conley for demonstrating the open source ORBITER simulator, which thanks to Robert's work, can also allow you to fly Mercury, Gemini and even SpaceShipOne.

GRC Aerospace Engineer Matt Melis drove back from Florida for the show, to sign copies of his very popular Return To Flight movie poster. When he's not designing artwork in his off-hours, Matt works in the Ballistics Impact Lab, where his team tests Shuttle parts for their ability to withstand hits from debris. You can read about Matt and his good friend Charlie Camarda here.

To all the collectSPACE readers who came out, it was great making your acquaintance and putting a face to the screen name or e-mails. To all the new collectSPACE readers who are joining us as a result of the show, welcome!

This show would not have been possible without the tremendous efforts of the GRC Visitor Center staff, including Cheryl McCallum, David Lowenfeld and Mike Blair. Their eagerness to have their NASA center welcome collectors with open arms is truly appreciated. As a result of their hard work, this type of show may be coming to a NASA center near you... and without a doubt, will be returning next year to where it all started at GRC!

posted July 24, 2005 12:05 AM               

Here is the collectSPACE table dedicated to showing the different types of Space Shuttle hardware one can collect:

In addition to the Memorabilia Show, visitors to GRC's Visitor were able to see Jim Lovell's Apollo 8 spacesuit and the Skylab 2 crew's command module:

And here is one part of the Ballistics Lab that is described above. This gas-powered gun is/was used to fire ice, External Tank foam and other projectiles at Space Shuttle tiles and RCC:

posted July 24, 2005 04:56 PM               

But I was glad to see Rob Conley get a nod for Orbiter. That software is a masterpiece. And Robs addons for it are superb.

And many thanks for the mention of Project Mercury for Orbiter. As the designer of the panel graphics (which took over a year to create from original NASA blueprints of the real panel), I now feel that while I may not have been there physically, I was there in Spirit.

posted July 24, 2005 05:13 PM               

Orbiter was created by Dr. Martin Schwiger, PhD.

posted July 25, 2005 12:51 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by tedc:
How about bringing a show to the Boeing Museum of Flight here is Seattle. I bet there would be lots of interest.

Ted

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Ah! Sounds like a great location for this if you ask me. I'll be there. :-)