posted 12-03-2003 06:53 AM               

The Texas Department of Transportation shall deposit $22 of the $30 application fee to the credit of the general revenue fund and may be used only by the Texas Aerospace Commission or its successor agency in making grants to benefit the Aviation and Space Foundation of Texas for the purposes of furthering aviation and space activities in Texas and providing Columbia Crew memorial scholarships to students.

posted 12-16-2004 04:33 PM               

Officials at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center trying to save the Saturn V rocket are on a mission: They need about 700 people to put down $50 each and sign up for the special Saturn V license plate before Jan. 31.

The state requires that 1,000 people preorder the special tags before it will begin production. If 1,000 aren't ordered by the deadline, then...

"It's just not an option for us," Space Center spokesman Al Whitaker said. "I mean, Huntsville and Madison County put men on the moon. How embarrassing if we can't put a tag on a car."

posted 01-13-2005 11:43 AM               

For each tag, $41.25 will go to the Space Center Foundation's Save the Saturn campaign to help pay the $5 million initial cost of restoring and showcasing one of the world's only remaining, complete Saturn V rockets.

posted 02-01-2005 12:15 PM               

Alabama soon will launch a new license plate.

As of Monday afternoon, more than 1,450 applications for the Saturn V "First to the Moon" tag had been turned in, said Ralph Petroff, head of the tag effort for the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Foundation's Saturn V Restoration executive committee.

That's at least 450 more than needed by Monday's deadline to get the state to begin producing the fund-raising license plate honoring the Saturn V - the rocket designed and developed in Huntsville that carried the astronauts on every moon mission.

posted 08-19-2005 10:54 AM               

There's one thing you can say today about those much-discussed, much-delayed, colorful, fundraising Saturn V license plates that you could never say before:

They're here.

Whether you've already ordered one or not, you can go to any county license office and get a rocket plate on your car today. You'll be helping efforts to refurbish and display the historic Saturn V rocket that's been weathering away for decades at the back of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, and Ralph Petroff believes you'll be helping refurbish Alabama's image, too.

posted 10-17-2005 11:41 AM               

Your purchase not only honors the numerous brave men and women who risked everything in their quest for knowledge, it also helps keep their mission alive. Your investment in the space plate generates valuable resources for space and technology-based education programs that help inspire the explorers of tomorrow. Purchase the space plate and help shape the future of Florida.

posted 02-06-2008 06:59 AM               

In January of 2009, production of the next Texas license plate will begin. The public currently has the opportunity to vote for one of four new designs or to keep the current plate.

The current standard design, introduced in 2000, includes the space shuttle in the upper left corner. In 2005, the design was amended to include a tribute to the loss of STS-107/Columbia by the addition of seven stars above the shuttle (similar to the custom Columbia plate pictured earlier in this thread).

Out of the five designs, only the current plate, titled "My Texas", includes reference to the space program. It is the only such plate in U.S. history to include a spacecraft or reference to NASA as part of the state's standard design.

posted 02-11-2008 10:13 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
Voting began at noon on Monday, Feb. 4 and ends at noon on Monday, Feb. 11.

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posted 02-16-2008 01:56 PM               

It is available as a real registration plate for Virginians, or as a souvenir plate for anyone else. The cost for a single souvenir plate is $10, and it can be personalized for an additional $10.

I've had "APOLLO" since 1999.

I see that Virginia DMV also offers a plate for NASA Langley Research Center.

posted 02-21-2008 11:05 AM               

The special "Leader in Flight" plate supports a Dayton group that builds and maintains a Wright Flyer. The plate has a small image of a Wright Flyer and the shuttle.

posted 01-26-2016 01:21 PM               

The Challenger plate debuted on Jan. 1, 1987 — less than year after the Jan. 28, 1986 disaster — as the nation's first specialty tag. Tallahassee lawmakers added shuttle Columbia shortly after the 2003 disaster, and the plate was bolted to 50,688 Sunshine State vehicles that year.

But now, that number of sales and renewals has dipped to 19,811 plates, Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles records show — a 61 percent plunge. Competition is a key factor: Florida now offers a cornucopia of 137 specialty license plates featuring colleges and universities, political causes, recreational activities, pro sports teams, wildlife and more.

The Challenger/Columbia plate's $25 annual fees benefit the Astronaut Memorial Foundation at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex.

posted 07-11-2020 06:15 PM               

Historic Saturn V swapped for SLS rocket on new Alabama license plate

Alabama has traded the glory of a past moon rocket for the promise of a new launch vehicle on the latest version of its space exploration-themed, specialty license plate.

The redesigned "Alabama Space Tag" replaces the depiction of the historic Saturn V booster— which 50 years ago launched the first astronauts to the moon — with NASA's new Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket. The new plate marks the first time that the Saturn V has not appeared on an Alabama plate in 15 years.

posted 04-07-2025 09:00 AM               

Ohio set to launch license plate for NASA Glenn Research Center

"The Birthplace of Aviation" now has a license to promote its hub for aeronautics and space advancements.

Ohio, home to NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, will begin offering a license plate featuring the facility's name and the federal agency's insignia.

posted 04-08-2025 01:08 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by lunarrv15:
...how to purchase them as a non-resident or locate used Saturn plate?

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Just for example, both Michigan and Virginia have dedicated pages for ordering souvenir specialty plates for collectors.

For the Virginia plates they even allow you to personalize the numbers/letters on the plate. They will arrive to you with "sample" stickers instead of actual "month" and "year" registration stickers since these are souvenirs only and not for actual road use. Other than the stickers, they are manufactured identical to the standard issued plates.

I would guess that some other states probably offer this service but do not have a comprehensive list of those that do.

If you are looking for a plate that was actually used on a vehicle, there are a few options. Generally the plate should be more than three years expired for it to be considered a souvenir and okay to sell. I believe this is to discourage people from selling and/or fraudulently using recently issued or recently expired license plates to those wanting to avoid paying registration fees.

1. eBay has a large amount of used license plates for sale and I suggest searching regularly as they even have a dedicated category for these items to narrow down your search: Collectibles/Transportation/Automobilia/License-Plates

2. The Automobile License Plate Collectors Association (ALPCA) is a US based organization for collectors that holds in person sales throughout the year. Dealers bring their large stocks of vintage and recent license plates for sale and setup tables for attendees to search through. I have had success this way finding space related plates in person. Also, once a dealer knows what you are looking for they can find it for you through their contacts especially if they know another dealer from the specific state.

A few other notes and things to be aware of:

1. Certain states "require" when you move out of state or have an expired plate that is not renewed that they be sent back to the DMV to be destroyed. This makes certain issues harder to find than others depending on how many people actually sent them back instead of keeping them.

2. Specifically for the Alabama space plates (yellow "First to the Moon" and red "Dare to Explore"), there tend to not be very many for sale. As Robert stated, there are replicas on the market to fill that void of scarcity.