"Are they shootin' another one of those things off again? What a waste of money for a box of rocks. You tell me how we can afford to explore the heavens when there's still a hell on earth."

Something happened after we made it to the moon. The Space Age ended. We stopped caring about Space and a lot of other things as well. Televised launches went the way of Walter Cronkite. No more ticker-tape parades for astronauts either. Heroes no longer, we forgot what they were willing to risk to explore in our name…

… until the cold morning of January 28, 1986.

The Hall of Science and U.S.Space Park as they appeared in 1967.

SOURCE: Hall of Science Amateur Radio Club Post Card, posted with permission

With great flourish NASA Director Webb had dedicated the New York Hall of Science and U.S. Space Park, congratulating Robert Moses and his associates for their wisdom in providing generations of New Yorkers with this "symbol of the impact that science has on our lives." The World's Fair ended. NASA presented the Space Park as a permanent loan to Flushing Meadows and entrusted its care to the citizens of Queens and New York City...

…and then they forgot about it.

	These photographs taken by Charles Aybar on Reopening Day of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in June, 1967 show a Space Park that looks very much like it did at the Fair, complete with information panels, lighting and rockets.   © All Photos Copyright 2002, Dr. Charles Aybar

On June 3, 1967, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park reopened to the public. The Hall of Science and Space Park were among a handful of treasures that remained from the Fair. In 1967, the Space Race was nearing its climax. Project Gemini had been a smashing success and the first of the Apollo launches would occur in '68. With the moon landing only two years away, the Space Park was pertinent, educational and still drew crowds…

…but not forever.

The coming decade brought economic disaster to America's great cities and New York was hit hard. Parks Department and Museum budgets were slashed. There would be no money for upkeep or for patrols to protect the legacies of the Fair. The U.S. Space Park began a rapid, painful decline as it succumbed to an era of neglect and decay that crept over Flushing Meadows like a cancer, turning millions of dollars worth of buildings and statuary and rockets -- gifts from the Fair -- into derelicts.

From the Space Park, circa early 1980s. The Apollo Command Module and damaged signage on display.

© Copyright 2002, Ken Thalheimer

Metal corroded. Wood rotted. Fiberglass faded. Vandals pried and smashed and did their demolition work. Rockets and satellites were removed from the Space Park and sent elsewhere. The serpentine walls of rusted, graffiti covered signage describing the exhibits was removed to keep it from falling on someone once its supports became too weak to hold it up. This multi-million dollar gift to America was left to disintegrate over twenty years, as much a result of apathy as of economic conditions.

© All Photos Copyright 2002, Rod Smith

The U.S. Space Park as it looked in 1998. The Apollo Command Module is gone from the site and only a portion of its steel cradle remains. Signage is derelict. Saturn V Boattail and Rozek's sculpture "Forms in Space" can be seen in the background.
Looking up at the 5-story high Saturn V Boattail section. Note the disintegrating wood underside of the mock-up. The Boattail would not be salvageable.
A close-up view of the interior of one of the giant F-1 engines of the Saturn V. Vandals have smashed the exterior revealing a plywood interior section. The engines of the Boattail would be all that was salvaged from the mock-up.
Base of the Atlas rocket. A rusted broken arrow is all that remains of the signage explaining the significance of the rocket. At the top was perched an actual capsule used in the Mercury Program.
Closer view of the Atlas rocket.

Nobody gave a damn. Who cared about some rusty old relics of The Space Age in a far-off corner of the Park? Visitors came now, not to be impressed or educated, but to see the broken-down ruins of an outdated display of America's space program. The Space Race was over and the ratty display at Flushing Meadows was no longer exciting enough to catch the imagination except as a prime example of the deplorable upkeep of Flushing Meadows in general. The public didn't care. The Hall of Science didn't care. The Parks Department didn't care and the Borough didn't care.

It closed to the public in 1984.

The U.S. Space park, June 1, 2001. All that remains is the Atlas rocket and Mercury Capsule and Titan rocket with Gemini Capsule replica. The remainder of the park is empty concrete circles and broken asphalt pavement enclosed in chain-link. Hall of Science guards routed the curious.

© Copyright 2002, Bill Young

Seventeen more years passed by. In the autumn of 2001, workers arrived at the Hall of Science to begin dismantling the rocket's remains. The Hall of Science wanted the site occupied by the Park for museum expansion. Mayor Guiliani and Queens Borough President Claire Schulman had secured $1 million to restore what everyone was now calling the "Rocket Park."

It is disgusting to see what little remained after forty years of neglect. Hardly a "park" anymore, the site consisted of circles of empty concrete marking the locations of long-gone exhibits on a crumbling asphalt lot. The Gemini capsule and Titan rocket, the Mercury capsule and Atlas rocket and the huge F-1 engines that were a part of the Boattail mockup of the Saturn V Booster (the Booster itself having deteriorated beyond salvage) were loaded onto trucks and carted away.

The rockets were taken to Akron, Ohio where they are being renovated by a firm which has restored rockets for NASA's Kennedy Space Center and the Smithsonian Institution. In spring 2004, the rockets will be retuned to the Hall of Science and will become a featured exhibit of their new "Space City, " occupying a landscaped area created at the intersection of the new and old buildings of the museum. It will provide outdoor program space for summer camp or science fair activities as well.

When opened in Spring of 2004, the completely renovated Rocket Park will feature a Mercury capsule with Atlas rocket, and a Gemini capsule with Titan rocket. Also included will be an interactive Mercury climb-in capsule, a water rocket launch, and a full size Saturn engine. (Shown in the background is the Hall's planned two-story addition.

© Copyright 2002, New York City Hall of Science

A happy ending to the story of the U.S. Space Park? Hardly.

It is a sad epilogue indeed to report that it will cost $1 million to restore what was once a multi-million dollar gift and that so little is left of that gift to restore. And it is a sad fact that although the Hall of Science, the Parks Department and the Borough of Queens are willing to take credit for coming to the rescue at the 11th hour to save the rockets, no one will be held accountable for the lamentable conditions that nearly destroyed this wonderful gift to the people of New York and America from the Fair.

The new Rocket Park will at long last again be an educational tool and a monument to the time when America watched breathlessly as hero-explorers blasted off into space to prepare the way for footsteps on the Moon. May we never again take for granted these icons of that important era in mankind's history of exploration that we called The Space Age.

The Hall of Science Responds

March 8, 2004 ... The following are comments that Hall of Science Director Dr. Alan J. Friedman, Ph.D. provided to nywf64.com in response to our Epilogue.

nywf64.com: The Space Race was over and the ratty display at Flushing Meadows was no longer exciting enough to catch the imagination except as a prime example of the deplorable upkeep of Flushing Meadows in general. The public didn't care. The Hall of Science didn't care. The Parks Department didn't care and the Borough didn't care. Dr. Friedman: I can't speak about the time before I arrived, but at least from 1984 on this "didn't care" characterization has been false. Borough President Claire Shulman and I worked in 1984 and every year afterwards to plan the preservation and renovation of the Space Park. Several of the replicas (like the replica lunar lander) were given to accredited museums (including the Intrepid Air-Sea-Space Museum and the Cradle of Aviation Museum) who wanted those items, could afford to transport and care for them indoors, and had collections in which the replicas made curatorial sense. The Hall of Science and the City's Department of Design and Construction had surveys and studies done to make sure the remaining real artifacts, the Atlas and Titan rockets, were stable and would not suffer additional damage. Plans for restoration and budgets were drawn up and revised as needed. Meanwhile we continued to look every single year for possible funders. It took 15 years, but full funding for the restoration of those rockets was finally secured, thanks to the Borough President, Mayor, City Council, and State Legislature. It was not for a lack of caring or of trying that this didn't happen sooner. it was for a lack of several million dollars. nywf64.com: The Hall of Science wanted the site occupied by the Park for museum expansion. Dr. Friedman: Untrue. We had been working and planning for 15 years to restore the Atlas and Titan rockets as integral components of the museum's expansion. They were reinstalled after their renovations only a few feet from their original locations. The location of the new wing in relation to the rockets was selected to provide security for the rockets, within the museum's protected outdoor spaces, to minimize any opportunity for vandalism and to maximize the opportunity for museum visitors to view them from both inside and outside the new wing. nywf64.com: It is a sad epilogue indeed to report that it will cost $1 million to restore what was once a multi-million dollar gift and that so little is left of that gift to restore. And it is a sad fact that although the Hall of Science, the Parks Department and the Borough of Queens are willing to take credit for coming to the rescue at the 11th hour to save the rockets, no one will be held accountable for the lamentable conditions that nearly destroyed this wonderful gift to the people of New York and America from the Fair. Dr. Friedman: The orignal Space Park was wonderful, but it was always intended by its planners to be temporary. So nobody needs to be "held accountable," because the Space Park functioned as it was intended to function, as a terrific, short-term exhibition. It is incorrect to suggest that the Space Park was built to be a permanent gift. Because the Space Park was intended as a temporary exhibition, it was neither designed nor constructed in a manner that would have allowed it to survive, even with continuous care, as a permanent exhibition. The entire interior supports of the Atlas and Titan were made of PLYWOOD, which would never have been a safe long-term method of supporting them outdoors. Most of the space park components were replicas made of similarly inexpensive, limited-lifetime materials. Short of completely rebuilding the Space Park from more durable materials (which would have cost far more than the original Space Park), or moving them to appropriate indoor museums (which we did), they could never have been sustained as permanent exhibits. As far as the renovation, it cost close to $2 million, not $1 million. Nobody claims to have "come to the rescue at the 11th hour" to make that renovation happen. We worked for 15 years to plan and raise money. The rockets were never "nearly destroyed," and while cosmetically they looked awful, we kept track during those 15 years to prevent any irreversible deterioration. The rockets as restored are much better than they were anytime before, INCLUDING at the opening of the '64 World's Fair. They now have more authentic details, and permanent steel interior skeletons which are designed to withstand hurricane-force winds and to last indefinitely. They are also displayed without the ugly guy wires which kept them vertical while on their original plywood skeletons.

VISIT PHILIP BUEHLER'S "MODERN RUINS" WEBSITE TO VIEW ADDITIONAL PHOTOS OF THE DERELICT U.S. SPACE PARK.

VISIT THE WEBSITE OF THE NEW YORK CITY HALL OF SCIENCE TO VIEW COMPLETE COVERAGE OF THE REMOVAL OF THE ROCKETS FOR RESTORATION.

(October 2, 2003-QUEENS, NY) Today the New York Hall of Science re-installed two rockets that have been a part of the institution's history since the 1964 World's Fair. The rockets were restored as part of a larger visitor rocket park, to open in July 2004.

The re-installation of the 110-foot-high Titan II rocket and 102-foot-high Atlas rocket completes a process that began in August 2001, when the rockets were removed and sent to Ohio for restoration.

"Standing at the base of these rockets and looking up is an awesome experience," said Hall Director Dr. Alan J. Friedman. "They are very tall, slender towers, once filled with extremely volatile fuel with tiny capsules on top. I am fascinated by imagining what it was like to be strapped into one of those capsules when the engines were ignited and the whole thing began to roar into space.

Both rockets will display capsules: the Titan II rocket will feature a Gemini capsule modeled after those used at the start of the U.S. space program; the Atlas rocket features a Mercury capsule model, similar to the one that carried John Glenn into space in 1963. A second replica capsule will be included in the new Rocket Park. The new park opening Thanksgiving week of 2004, will also feature hands-on displays; an authentic Mercury capsule, originally displayed on the Atlas rocket, will be included as part of the Hall's $68-million expansion.

Both rockets were part of the two-acre United States Space Park at the 1964-1965 World's Fair, and were later donated to the Hall. Years of weathering necessitated the restoration, which included removal of corrosion, replacement of several exterior panels, new steel framing, and painting. The restoration was conducted by Thomarios®, an Akron-based firm which has to its credit the restoration of rockets at the Kennedy Space Center and the Smithsonian Institution.

SOURCE: Hall of Science press release dated October 2, 2003 © Copyright 2003, New York City Hall of Science

I would like to thank Steve Garber of the NASA History Office for supplying copies of press releases and photos. Thank you also to Craig Bavaro, Rod Slurman, Ken Thalheimer, Dr. Charles Aybar, Robert Yowell and Bill Young for generous donations of photographs for this Feature.