Space News
space history and artifacts articles

Messages
space history discussion forums

Sightings
worldwide astronaut appearances

Resources
selected space history documents

  collectSPACE: Messages
  Space Places
  Southern Colorado Space Museum (Pueblo)

Post New Topic  Post A Reply
profile | register | preferences | faq | search

next newest topic | next oldest topic
Author Topic:   Southern Colorado Space Museum (Pueblo)
saturn1b
Member

Posts: 159
From: Westcliffe, CO
Registered: Jun 2006

posted 12-02-2007 04:00 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for saturn1b   Click Here to Email saturn1b     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
New Space Museum in Colorado?

Well, that's the plan. Some of you have known about this plan for a while now. It's slow going with a lot of paperwork, red tape etc. But well worth all the effort.

We have a website up now and I welcome any input that will help me make this a better project. I certainly can't do this all on my own. We will need board members, volunteers, donations of all kinds and expert advice from folks like everyone here on collectSPACE.

We will be working on the 501c3 paperwork real hard over the next few months and hope to have our rating by the middle of next year.

Let me know if you have any thoughts, either via direct e-mail, through this posting or through the museum website. Wish us luck, it's not going to be easy!

saturn1b
Member

Posts: 159
From: Westcliffe, CO
Registered: Jun 2006

posted 07-27-2008 11:42 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for saturn1b   Click Here to Email saturn1b     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
After months and months of waiting for all the paperwork to be filled out, filed and reviewed, we have finally been granted our 501c3 non-profit status from the IRS! That means we have the go ahead to launch our fundraising campaigns using the Giant Rocket Bank etc.

We are looking at a 31,000 sq. ft. building here in Southern Colorado. A perfect building in a perfect spot.

Thanks for the help, advice and support I've received from some of you. Anyone interested in helping out can visit our website. We now have a PayPal link as well as a separate link to another site that will help raise a few dollars. This is going to be a multi-million dollar effort so every cent is appreciated (and tax deductible too)!

While I was at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs last April, I talked with 23 different aerospace companies that are willing to help us out in a number of different ways. So that will be a huge help in itself. So wish us luck and we hope that you can come visit us when we're up and running.

saturn1b
Member

Posts: 159
From: Westcliffe, CO
Registered: Jun 2006

posted 09-28-2008 11:03 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for saturn1b   Click Here to Email saturn1b     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The latest acquisition for our space museum has arrived! We are honored to be chosen as one of only 30 recipients throughout the country to receive an actual flown space shuttle tire. We haven't even acquired our building yet so we're very pleased that NASA has the faith in us to realize that we are on our way to putting up a new museum here in Colorado.

The tire was flown on STS-106 in Sept. 2000 on Space Shuttle Atlantis. STS-106 was a mission to the ISS that delivered supplies and did maintenance just before the station was to be occupied.

We have the tire on loan for three years with the option to renew the loan for another three years. We are now working on a complete display of mission info (crew, mission stats, etc.) to go along with the tire. Any suggestions are certainly welcome.

saturn1b
Member

Posts: 159
From: Westcliffe, CO
Registered: Jun 2006

posted 07-13-2011 10:18 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for saturn1b   Click Here to Email saturn1b     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Well we FINALLY have some great news to pass on to the collectSPACE world!

All the effort we've been putting into this museum thing has finally paid off. After years of searching, brainstorming, meeting with countless folks and negotiating, we have teamed up with the Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum here in Southern Colorado.

They have offered us space in their brand new 20000 sq. ft. building to start our museum effort. They just happen to have one of the helicopters that was involved in the recovery of Alan Shepard and his Freedom 7 capsule so our space is in the same area as this helicopter.

Since we are right in the middle of building the full scale mock up of a Mercury capsule, it was a no brainer to focus on making ours as close to the Freedom 7 configuration as possible. We still have quite a way to go on the capsule build but I'll get back to that on the other thread.

Right now we are frantically building display cases for some of the artifacts that are on display or soon to be. I'll take some photo's this weekend. We have the Space Shuttle tire on display along with a thermal tile, a pre-Challenger life vest and a display case full of Alan Shepard/Freedom 7 memorabilia to go along with the chopper.

Soon to be put on display are a couple of articles from the F-1 engine and a nice piece of foam from the Shuttle's external tank and a section of wing leading edge of the type that was used in the investigation after the Columbia disaster.

This week we will also be filling a display case with nothing but Apollo 11 stuff to help commemorate July 20.

I have to thank everyone from cS who has donated items to our cause over the past couple of years. Thank for your confidence that we could pull this off. Many of you wished to remain anonymous and we certainly respect that. Others wished to wait until we actually had a building to house the collection, we sure respect that as well.

So now we have it and those of you wishing to donate anything... now's the time. All donations are tax deductible too. Whether you wish to remain anonymous or don't mind getting credit for a donation, we're accepting anything that comes our way.

We also have a had a number of astronauts that have been kind enough to offer items from their personal collections.

We'll keep you posted as to our progress. Once again, thanks to all of you for helping to get this effort launched. This has been way more work than I thought it would be but now the fun begins.

saturn1b
Member

Posts: 159
From: Westcliffe, CO
Registered: Jun 2006

posted 07-17-2011 09:42 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for saturn1b   Click Here to Email saturn1b     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Here are a few photo's of some of the displays in the new museum area.

Space Shuttle main landing gear tire flown on Atlantis to the ISS.

Space shuttle tile display

Pre-Challenger era life vest

This is a collection of Freedom 7 stuff that sits in front of the Navy's Seabat helicopter that assisted in the recovery of Freedom 7.

This case was just set up to commemorate Apollo 11.

saturn1b
Member

Posts: 159
From: Westcliffe, CO
Registered: Jun 2006

posted 08-25-2013 09:05 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for saturn1b   Click Here to Email saturn1b     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Ken Bowersox was kind enough to send us his Russian flight coveralls. These spent three months aboard the ISS.

He also sent us some space food, a couple of personal items, silverware and a flown mission patch.

saturn1b
Member

Posts: 159
From: Westcliffe, CO
Registered: Jun 2006

posted 08-29-2013 11:59 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for saturn1b   Click Here to Email saturn1b     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Here's one of our most recent acquisitions, an inner glove restraint assembly. Maybe someday we'll get a complete glove.

saturn1b
Member

Posts: 159
From: Westcliffe, CO
Registered: Jun 2006

posted 09-25-2015 11:41 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for saturn1b   Click Here to Email saturn1b     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This is the latest item we have to display in the museum. It is a Lunar Oxygen Test Bed developed by Lockheed Martin. It is about the size of a small car and weighs around 1500 lbs. Valued at $1.4 million, it's by far the most valuable artifact we have to display.

Right now it is in pieces and needs to be reassembled. We're hoping to get a couple of technicians from Lockheed to come down and assist us in that process. It's an incredibly complicated instrument and might take a while to put together.

And just wait until you see what ULA is donating, it's AWESOME!

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 46100
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 06-03-2016 02:32 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 2 solid-fuel booster has been donated to the Southern Colorado Space Museum and Learning Center for display at the Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum.
Delta 2's have been a workhorse vehicle for decades because they can have additional solid-fuel boosters attached to push heavy payloads into space. Some of those boosters were even manufactured in Pueblo when the Boeing Co. had a plant at the airport industrial park.

One of those motors came home Thursday when it was unloaded for display outside the Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum. It was donated by United Launch Alliance, the rocket partnership that formed in 2005 between Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp.

The 4,400-pound motor was given to the Southern Colorado Space Museum and Learning Center, which is a long name for the personal space collection of Steve Janssen, its enthusiastic founder.

Janssen, from Westcliffe, has his space collection — which includes items like a tire from a NASA space shuttle — housed at the Pueblo aircraft museum.

saturn1b
Member

Posts: 159
From: Westcliffe, CO
Registered: Jun 2006

posted 06-05-2016 11:06 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for saturn1b   Click Here to Email saturn1b     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
June 2 was a great day here at the museum. We had our rocket delivered!

The GEM booster was donated by ULA and we're certainly grateful for their continued support. The rocket measures 42 feet long and weighs in at around 44,000 lbs. It is now on permanent display in the main parking area just outside the gift shop.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 46100
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 03-26-2020 10:27 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
United Launch Alliance (ULA) donated to the museum the form tool used to fabricate the Delta II payload fairings. From Steve Janssen (via Facebook):
The fairings are the very top section of the rocket that protected satellites or other payloads during launch. This artifact will be placed on display in the main parking lot next to the GEM rocket booster that was also donated by ULA.

The mold is 40 feet long and 14 feet wide. We're grateful to ULA for allowing us to display and preserve these historical artifacts. The museum is closed now during the quarantine but we hope you'll stop by and visit once things get back to normal.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 46100
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 04-25-2021 02:23 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
United Launch Alliance (ULA) has donated to the museum more leftover parts from the Delta II program. From Steve Janssen (via Facebook):
The space museum has a lot to be grateful for lately. We finally received the only Delta II main rocket engine left along with the engine section and the 1st stage liquid oxygen (LOX) tank. the tank would hold roughly 10,000 gals or 10 tons of liquid oxygen and the engine would consume it all in about 265 seconds!

We can't thank ULA, United Launch Alliance enough for donating such awesome, historic and cool artifacts.

All times are CT (US)

next newest topic | next oldest topic

Administrative Options: Close Topic | Archive/Move | Delete Topic
Post New Topic  Post A Reply
Hop to:

Contact Us | The Source for Space History & Artifacts

Copyright 2021 collectSPACE.com All rights reserved.


Ultimate Bulletin Board 5.47a





advertisement