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NASA gives X-38 aircraft to museum
ASHLAND – Another piece of space program history will make its home at Strategic Air and Space Museum.
The X-38 Crew Return Vehicle left Johnson Space Center in Houston on Tuesday and is being transported by Werner Global Logistics, a division of Werner Enterprises. It is scheduled to arrive at Strategic Air and Space Museum on Saturday.
“Bringing the X-38 vehicle to the SASM in Ashland is an extremely exciting event for our community, the museum and the State of Nebraska,” said Ashland native Clay Anderson, the astronaut who was originally scheduled to send the aircraft off from the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Anderson was busy preparing for his upcoming space flight in March 2010, so his wife, Susan Anderson, filled in for him.
The X-38 is a wingless, unpiloted vehicle NASA was developing to bring astronauts from the International Space Station back to Earth in an emergency situation. The aircraft landed using the world’s largest parafoil parachute.
The project began in 1995 as an alternative to the Russian Soyuz capsule. Due to budget cuts, the program was cancelled in 2002 after reaching the stage of paraglider drop tests.
While the aircraft was not completed, the information gleaned from the project is useful for future NASA programs, said Anderson.
“It helps to capture the history of our countries’ space program and the critical processes that are required for the design, development and testing of vehicles that will continue to safely ferry humans to and from our Planet Earth,” he said.
The Strategic Air and Space Museum is receiving this gift from NASA based on their long standing relationship with the space agency, according to museum officials. It will arrive on Saturday and be prepared for display.
Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy will celebrate as the X-38 crosses the Nebraska border in Nebraska City with a ceremony at 9:30 a.m. at Orscheln Farm and Home. The aircraft will be on display there until approximately 11:45 a.m., when it will leave for its new home in Ashland.
As the Strategic Air and Space Museum celebrates the arrival of the X-38, they are also celebrating the announcement that they were recently awarded a major grant from the State of Nebraska.
The museum has been awarded $200,000 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding from the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.
The grant will be funneled through Cass County for a Nebraska Tourism Development project that will create six full-time jobs at the museum. The funding will be used to repair and retrofit the building’s heating system, replace window, repair the water system and roof, install paving, upgrade the security system and replace a concrete wall expansion joint. The ConAgra Theater and audio/video system will be updated and a green screen installed to allow visitors to experience being a crew member in a spacecraft.
By Suzi Nelson, The Ashland Gazette
