posted 12-18-2015 08:20 AM               

"In the next few months, people should go visit if they can," said Rick Asbach, one of the directors of the nonprofit facility. "It would be good if we could get some places in the community to put some of the things on display, rather than putting them in storage and having them sort of melt away."

The state Department of Transportation has offered to construct a new building directly across the street from the current location at the Kona International Airport terminal. But after several years of working with the DOT and considering four different sites, the governing board of the space center has decided that the higher costs of operating a much larger building, along with other new costs and responsibilities, are just too much for the facility to absorb.

The center will close its doors at the end of March. In its place will be constructed a new gateway to an airport renovation priced at $70 million.

...the center features numerous displays of space shuttle missions, lunar landers, videos from inside the International Space Station, gyroscopes, games and other offerings that teach the principles of space and physics. The center is heavy with memorabilia from Onizuka's own life, and also displays a piece of moon rock and the space suit of Fred Haise, the lunar module pilot on Apollo 13.

The last two items are on loan from NASA and will have to be returned, Asbach said.

posted 12-24-2015 04:44 PM               

Makes you wonder if this is a sign of waning interest in what WAS a huge news item for the 1980s (most people in my generation can tell you where they were when they heard that the Challenger came apart) but has since been faded by other happenings in more recent years.

posted 12-24-2015 05:24 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by p51:
Makes you wonder if this is a sign of waning interest...

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