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Astronomy in Art & Architecture:  A Welcoming Saturn

By Mr. Christopher Graney  |  8 May 2021

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I have been writing for Sacred Space Astronomy for over five years now, and I started doing these “Astronomy in Art & Architecture” posts (click here for all of them) shortly after I started writing.  Originally I thought it would be easy to discover astronomical themes in art and architecture, but finding such themes has been more difficult than I thought. Indeed, it has been eight months since the last “Art & Architecture” post.

But stretch the idea of “Art & Architecture” a bit, and expand “Astronomy” to include all things space, and you will find there is a huge example of “Astronomy in Art & Architecture” at the Alabama welcome center on Interstate 65 near Huntsville (Huntsville being home of the Marshall Space Flight Center and U.S. Space and Rocket Center):  an Apollo-era Saturn rocket.

What strikes me now when I look at the Welcome Center Saturn is that this is a very big, very cool thing.  I love it.  But looking at it makes me think that it been standing in the weather for over 40 years (a plaque under the rocket gives a date of July 1979).  How long can something like this stand?  It is not really a piece of architecture.  It is a piece of space hardware (or, I presume, the shell of a piece of space hardware—I doubt all the guts of the rocket are inside), not built for a long life.

Even a famed rocket can suffer from rust, peeling paint, and bird droppings.  The ladder atop the Saturn is interesting (top center).  I could never figure out how anyone would get to the ladder in the first place.
Even a famed rocket can suffer from rust, peeling paint, and bird droppings.  The ladder atop the Saturn is interesting (top center).  I could never figure out how anyone would get to the ladder in the first place.

What is the maintenance routine for this Saturn?  Might there be some structural member slowly rusting away up inside, waiting to give way under the strain of a big wind?  Think of large objects constructed out of metal, like the Arecibo radio telescope, or the original 300-foot radio telescope at Green Bank in West Virginia.  You get the idea.

Will this giant bit of roadside astronomical art still be standing in five or ten years?  I hope so.  But I worry that it will not, and you can see why in the photos.  Time is hard on everything.

Click here for all Astronomy in Art & Architecture posts.

This is a big rocket.
This is a big rocket. For scale, note the person standing on the other side.
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