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Author Topic:   Museum of the Coastal Bend: Above Texas Skies
Robert Pearlman
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Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 02-21-2015 01:59 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Museum of the Coastal Bend (Victoria, Texas) release
Above Texas Skies: Space Exploration in the Texas Coastal Bend

Opening March 5, 2015

Blast off with the Museum of the Coastal Bend!

The Texas Coastal Bend has enabled space exploration for more than 50 years... and it's more than just the space center in Houston. See a moon rock, learn the story of the first private space launch in history, how the space shuttle almost launched from our coast, and how this region helped make sure astronauts were well-trained.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 02-22-2015 12:05 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The Museum of the Coastal Bend is seeking people who witnessed launches at Matagorda Island more than 30 years ago, the Victoria Advocate reports.
On Sept. 9, 1982, Space Services, Inc. successfully launched the 36-foot Conestoga 1 rocket from the south section of Matagorda Island. Conestoga 1 contained 40 pounds of water to simulate the weight of a satellite. It was carried 321 miles during a 10.5-minute, suborbital flight that reached an elevation of 195 miles. This was the first privately-funded rocket to reach space.

A year earlier, on Aug. 5, 1981, the 59-foot Percheron rocket, a low-cost commercial test vehicle, was fired from Matagorda Island but exploded at launch due to a malfunction.

Witnesses include people working at the site, those who saw a launch, or anyone who was involved in any way with the launch efforts.

...if you have information, call or email the museum at 361-582-2511.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 03-06-2015 07:52 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Last night (March 5), I took my first trip down to the Museum of the Coastal Bend for the opening of their new exhibit, "Above Texas Skies: Space Exploration in the Coastal Bend." As a plaque greeting guests to the exhibit explains:
Most people know that Texas is home to NASA's Johnson Space Center. But this region of Texas is also home to many other stories of space exploration, from astronaut training to the first private spaceflight in history.
"Above Texas Skies" presents a number of rarely-seen artifacts, including memorabilia from the 1982 launch of Conestoga 1 from Matagorda Island (a site that NASA once considered for launching the space shuttle), space mementos belonging to Lyndon B. and Lady Bird Johnson and a moon rock returned by the Apollo 15 astronauts in 1971.

The museum is also displaying two equipment boxes from OV-095, the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL) at Johnson Space Center, on loan from collectSPACE.

The museum has scheduled a number of talks to accompany the exhibit, including one on missing moon rocks by Joseph Gutheinz and in May, a lecture by astronaut Bonnie Dunbar.

All times are CT (US)

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