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As I witnessed the latest publicity stunt put up by our government, involving our very own Angkasawan and his little space tour to the International Space Station, I was reminded that our government wouldn’t mind squandering millions of precious public funds for vanity projects of little significance and creating cardboard heroes that nobody looks up to. Our space program, if you could call it a space program at all, is merely a form of government-funded space tourism. A deal-sweetener from our Air Force’s multi-billion ringgit purchase of Sukhoi fighters from the Russian Federation.

While Malaysia is content with buying its way into space, I came to admire the achievements of the pioneer space-faring nations. To the late Soviet Unions and the United States of America, the journey to space required thousands of hours of research, billions of dollars of investment and sheer determination that resulted in the seemingly impossible feat of sending humans to space and back.

I had the chance to explore the history of America’s journey to space when I visited the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville.

U.S. Space and Rocket Center

SR-77 Blackbird

The center chronicles how the city of Huntsville came to be an important research and development center for the space & rocketry technology.

Huntsville came to prominence when the US military decided to make the city a center for researching rocket propulsion. They brought in many scientist from Germany after World War II, including the famous Wernher von Braun. He was a pivotal figure in Germany’s pre-war rocket development program and was responsible for the design and realization of the infamous V-2 combat rocket.

Replica of Wernher von Braun’s office

V-2 Rocket

There was plenty to see at the center. On display was various equipments used by the early astronauts.

Space diapers

Spacemen wear Omega

Scaled rocket models and space vehicles.

Scaled model of the Saturn V

Lunar Excursion Module

Apollo re-entry vehicle

Rocket engines of all sorts.

POWER!

Humongous rocket engine

And various space oddities.

Sample of moon rock

Coke in Space

Outside the center’s compound lies the Rocket Garden. It is an impressive display of half a dozen rockets of various size and age.

Rocket Garden

A life-sized Saturn I

It’s HUGE!

I came away from the center amazed at the American’s technological achievements. The fact that they manage to pull it off decades before us is a testament of their ingenuity.

Saturn V

Maybe we should actually learn how to build and launch rockets before sending someone to space to spin tops and drink teh tarik.