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'Rocket City' USA Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Moon Landing

Kane Farabaugh

   HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA - It was only fitting that on the 50th anniversary
   of the 1969 rocket launch that ultimately landed a man on the moon, the
   "Rocket City" of the United States would attempt to set a rocket
   record.

   "We are launching 5000 bottle rockets to break a Guinness World
   Record," explained Randall Robinson. He is the Director of Training at
   SpaceCamp, an immersive space and science experience geared towards
   youth, many of whom came to watch this special record launch attempt on
   the campus that SpaceCamp shares with the U.S. Space and Rocket Center
   in Huntsville.

   "Us wanting to break this record is signifying, and putting, Huntsville
   back on the map, for the importance that it played in the Apollo
   program," he told VOA, as a countdown clock ticked away the minutes to
   zero hour for the launch.

   In the race to the moon in the 1960s, the development of a large rocket
   that could thrust spacecraft beyond earth's atmosphere became a
   critical element that could make or break the Apollo moon program.

   That critical element -- the Saturn V rocket - was developed in
   Huntsville under the leadership of scientist Wernher von Braun at
   NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

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