NASA Shows 100 Years of Flight at the Los Angeles County Fair
Story by Beth Hagenauer
Public Affairs, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center
NASA introduced the Centennial of Flight celebration to the greater Los Angeles area with an exhibit at the Los Angeles County Fair Sept. 12-28.
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A young wide-eyed visitor examines a moon rock sample from Apollo 15 that was part of NASA's Centennial of Flight exhibit at the LA County Fair.
NASA photo by Tom Tschida |
The 10,000 square-foot "Powering Flight, Powering Dreams" exhibit was housed in the High Flying Fun! building of Pomona's Fairplex, home to the fair. The 1930s building resembles a 43,000 square-foot hangar.
The exhibit traced NASA's journey from early flight research to current aeronautical advancements and from Project Mercury to the International Space Station. Artifacts distributed throughout the NASA area enhanced visitors' experiences. An Apollo 15 lunar sample was displayed near an Apollo-era space suit. Shannon Lucid's Soyuz space suit, a space shuttle tile and tire, a Saturn V rocket model, and a mock-up of the International Space Station's Destiny module were viewed by some of the 78,000 school children who attended the fair that opened early on weekdays for students. Educators left the exhibit with NASA products designed to enrich their classrooms.
Exhibit staff greeted fairgoers with NASA decals and a brief mention of some of the highlights of the display. Several NASA staff were asked what the acronym NASA meant and what NASA does. Many confused the phrase "moon rock" with "moon walk" so the lunar sample's presence was announced as the "rock from the moon."
"The LA County Fair proved to be a fantastic opportunity to introduce people of all ages and all walks of life to the NASA education program," said Bill Anderson, the partnership manager for education at NASA's Office of Aerospace Technology. "Visitors to the education booth were enthusiastic about NASA and seemed genuinely interested in the services we have to offer. One couple told me they had attended every LA County Fair for the past 40 years, and the NASA exhibit was the best they had ever seen," Anderson said.
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| Astronaut Tracy Caldwell answers youngsters' questions following her presentation at the NASA Centennial of Flight exhibit at the LA County Fair. (NASA photo by Tom Tschida) |
Children enjoyed the five daily boisterous performances of the Mad Science's "Mission to Mars" stage show developed for Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., provided a number of speakers for the exhibit stage including Vance Brand, Apollo-Soyuz astronaut, and Bill Dana, lifting body and X-15 pilot. Astronaut Tracy Caldwell, a Southern California native, talked about her training experiences on NASA Day Sept. 23.
Glenn Research Center's popular photo booth allowed visitors to receive a keepsake photo of themselves as if wearing a space suit.
Employees from NASA Headquarters, the California NASA Centers of Ames, Dryden and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Ohio's Glenn Research Center supported the exhibit.
Many of the 1,302,389 attendees at this year's Los Angeles County Fair left with a greater appreciation for the contributions to the past century of powered flight by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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