|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||||||
| |
About Us |
 |
|
Press RoomFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 31, 2002 CONTACT: David Perry, This document and all Chabot Space & Science Center news releases may be found online at www.chabotspace.org under Press room. Sunken Spacecraft Touches Down in The Lost Spacecraft: Liberty Bell 7 Recovered Interactive Exhibit at Chabot Space & Science Center June 29 – September 15, 2002 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oakland, Calif., May 31, 2002 — This summer, Chabot Space & Science Center hosts "The Lost Spacecraft: Liberty Bell 7 Recovered," an interactive exhibit from Discovery Channel. The exhibit takes visitors on a virtual ride 118 miles into space and three miles below the ocean surface as it recounts the story of the ill-fated 1961 Mercury space mission. The centerpiece of the exhibit is the mission's Liberty Bell 7 capsule, which sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in July 1961, where it lay undetected for 38 years. Recovered in 1999 during a Discovery Channel expedition, the newly restored capsule is now on national tour in "The Lost Spacecraft: Liberty Bell 7 Recovered," created by Discovery Channel in partnership with Clear Channel Entertainment–Exhibitions, Inc. of San Antonio, Texas. The exhibit opens in the galleries of Chabot Space & Science Center on June 29, and continues through September 15, 2002. The second manned space mission for the United States, Liberty Bell 7 was flown in 1961 by pioneering astronaut and U.S. Air Force Captain Virgil "Gus" Grissom. The mission lasted 15 minutes and 37 seconds before splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean, when the capsule's escape hatch prematurely opened, causing Liberty Bell 7 to quickly fill with water. Astronaut Grissom barely escaped drowning when the capsule sank to the bottom of the sea, the only lost NASA spacecraft. In 1999, Liberty Bell 7 was found 300 miles off the coast of Florida. Resting deeper than the Titanic and only the size of a refrigerator, the capsule was lifted from the ocean floor in a rescue mission undertaken by deep-sea search and recovery expert Curt Newport and his expedition team. The raised and restored Liberty Bell 7 space capsule is on display, seen as Grissom left it and as Newport and his team found it after nearly four decades on the ocean floor. "The Lost Spacecraft: Liberty Bell 7 Recovered" takes a journey back in time to 1961 and the dramatic story of the launch and loss of Liberty Bell 7, plunging visitors into the Cold War era when the United States and Soviet Union vied for dominance in the “space race.” Visitors experience the science, the skill and the spirit of Liberty Bell 7 firsthand as they watch NASA footage of the doomed mission, see Mission Control as it appeared in 1961, engage in astronaut training tests, and use interactive simulators to maneuver and control the Liberty Bell 7 capsule. "The Lost Spacecraft: Liberty Bell 7 Recovered" then fast-forwards to 1999 and the exciting events surrounding the harrowing rescue of Liberty Bell 7 by Curt Newport and his rescue team. The exhibit offers a remarkable re-creation of the deck of the recovery ship Ocean Project, where visitors can read the recovery team's daily Internet log as it appeared during the expedition, and learn about the state-of-the-art technology of modern deep-sea exploration that enabled the recovery of the sunken capsule. THE CAPSULE'S ADVENTURE Liberty Bell 7, a bell-shaped spacecraft with a crack painted down its side, was a symbol of hope for U.S. supremacy during the Cold War. In an atmosphere of nuclear missiles and bomb shelters, the Soviet Union pulled ahead in the "space race" with its orbit of Sputnik, the world's first satellite. The United States stepped up its Mercury Project (1961-1963), which resolved to put a manned spacecraft into earth orbit and to investigate a human's ability to survive and work in space. The Mercury program lasted 55 months, involved 7,300 contractors, 2 million people and cost more than $400 million. McDonnell Aircraft in St. Louis, Missouri built Mercury space capsules. Liberty Bell 7 was the first capsule to have pilot controls, an escape hatch and a viewing window. After sinking at splashdown in 1961, Liberty Bell 7 came to rest more than three miles deep in an area of the Atlantic Ocean known as the Blake Basin, where sunlight never shines and salt water freezes. There are no plant materials to entwine foreign objects, and no barnacles to colonize their surfaces. Liberty Bell 7 sat in a virtual sensory deprivation tank, filled with mud and debris deposited by the sea and created by the corrosion of its aluminum surfaces. Curt Newport's recovery expedition, funded by the Discovery Channel, left Cape Canaveral aboard the Ocean Project on April 16, 1999. After days of meticulously exploring the 24-square-mile search area 300 miles off the Florida coast with side-scan sonar, the crew identified their targets and descended with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) using high-definition cameras. The first target they dove on was Liberty Bell 7. Their excitement was short-lived when the tether of the ROV severed in rough seas and the ROV fell to the bottom of the ocean, ending the expedition. A new ROV was built and a second expedition mounted on July 1, 1999, to retrieve Liberty Bell 7. The spacecraft was recovered from the ocean floor and returned to land on July 21, exactly 38 years after its flight into space. Once raised, Liberty Bell 7 was sent to the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, Kansas, for restoration and preservation. Thirty-eight years at the bottom of the ocean had caused extensive damage, and the control panel's aluminum components were badly corroded, but parts covered in fabric survived, and Grissom's personal parachute was in excellent condition. A four-person crew painstakingly removed, cleaned and replaced as many as 26,000 parts from the spacecraft, sifting through the thick layer of muck, debris and corroded metal that had settled to the bottom of Liberty Bell 7 in search of missing components. As the restorers were taking apart Liberty Bell 7, they came across cigarette butts, a disposable plastic cup, a motel-sized bar of soap and $10.20 in cash, including five $1 silver certificates, some signed by members of the original assembly crew, and $5.20 in Mercury dimes, with still-unidentified initials and symbols scratched into many of the coins. THE EXHIBIT "The Lost Spacecraft: Liberty Bell 7 Recovered" is organized into four sections: • At Home in 1961 — Details of America's race into space against the Soviet Union are set against the home-like environment of an early 1960s living room, complete with brown Naugahyde sofa, bi-level coffee table, wood paneling, floor-to-ceiling lamp and console TV with rabbit ears. It's the Cold War era, project Mercury is getting underway, and the U.S. is choosing its first seven astronauts, among them U.S. Air Force Capt. Virgil "Gus" Grissom, who became the second American in space • The Mission — Interactive displays, graphics, video and audio of the period give visitors a firsthand feel for the astronauts' experiences and the years of training they underwent to see how humans could withstand the tremendous stresses of space flight. A flight simulator, centrifuge, rocket testing and capsule controls offer visitors a chance to see how the astronauts—and the thousands of people devoted to getting them into orbit—prepared for the launch and flight of Liberty Bell 7. Launch day and Mission Control are re-created as a multimedia presentation tracks the historic flight of the spacecraft, and a splashdown theater and helicopter replication relate the drama of the failed attempts to recover the sinking capsule. • The Expedition — Visitors enter via a gangway onto a replica of the expedition ship, Ocean Project. The voice of underwater search and recovery expert Curt Newport guides visitors through the goals and challenges of the expedition, its triumphs and failures. Artifacts from the search and recovery expedition are on display, along with items that detail the restoration of the Liberty Bell 7 capsule. • Liberty Bell 7 — The Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft and its many artifacts tell their own story about their time in space and on the ocean floor. Visitors can view Grissom's Mercury spacesuit gloves, a real Mercury hatch, and a complete Apollo 1 spacesuit. The exhibit closes with a tribute to Grissom, known as the "astronaut's astronaut," with accounts of his post-Liberty Bell 7 accomplishments, his untimely death in the Apollo I tragedy and his inspirational legacy. INTERACTIVE ELEMENTS OF THE EXHIBIT "The Lost Spacecraft: Liberty Bell 7 Recovered" gives visitors of all ages a hands-on lesson in the science and technology associated with early space flight and modern deep-sea exploration. The exhibit engages visitors in astronaut training, spacecraft technology and launch sequences as it highlights the story of the 1961 flight and loss of the Liberty Bell 7. It then takes them to the deck of the recovery ship, where they can help to locate and lift the sunken capsule, using modern-day technology. Through interactive elements of the exhibit, visitors learn what it's like to fly into space and dive deep under the sea, as they: • Climb in the pilot's seat of a capsule simulator and perform pre-flight tasks in the tiny spacecraft. • Use a periscope to view NASA rocket launch videos from the Mercury mission. • View NASA footage of the flight of the Liberty Bell 7, with accounts of the Mercury Program by Grissom and other astronauts. • Train like an early astronaut by climbing into an actual centrifuge, one of the exhibit's main attractions, which was used to test the response of astronauts to powerful G-forces (gravitational forces) experienced during spaceflight. • Enter a "splashdown theater" to view the actual attempts to rescue the sinking craft, seen through the window of a partial replica of the Sikorsky recovery helicopter. • Use a joystick control to maneuver a small helicopter model, and attempt to recover a miniature version of the Liberty Bell 7. • Test their underwater piloting skills on an amazing interactive Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), complete with robot arms and cameras, just like the undersea explorers who found the Liberty Bell 7. • Use custom software to create a video image from rough sonar data, identifying sonar images of unknown objects miles beneath the ocean's surface. • Conduct virtual interviews with Curt Newport to discover the secrets and technology behind the 1999 mission to raise the capsule. General Information "The Lost Spacecraft: Liberty Bell 7 Recovered" is on exhibit in the galleries of Chabot Space & Science Center from June 29 through September 15, 2002. Chabot Space & Science Center is located at 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland (in Joaquin Miller Park in the Oakland Hills). General admission to the galleries and classrooms is $8.00 adults/$5.50 seniors & children. The first Wednesday of each month is FREE general admission for visitors. There is an additional charge for programs in the Ask Jeeves Planetarium and Tien MegaDome Theater. Summer hours for the full complex of galleries are Tues - Thurs, 10 – 5; Fri – Sat, 10 – 9; Sun, 12 – 5; closed Mondays and major holidays. Free Telescope Observatory access is available on Friday–Saturday, 9 pm to 11 pm. Tickets may be purchased at the door, or by calling (510) 336-7373. Advance tickets are also available on-line at www.ticketweb.com or by phone at (866) 468-3399. For more information, call (510) 336-7300, or visit www.chabotspace.org # # # "The Lost Spacecraft: Liberty Bell 7 Recovered" was created by Discovery Channel in partnership with Clear Channel Entertainment–Exhibitions, Inc. Discovery Channel is one of the United States' two largest cable television networks, serving 78 million households across the nation with the finest in informative entertainment. Clear Channel Entertainment - Exhibitions, Inc., based in San Antonio, Texas, is a world leader in providing high quality, state-of-the-art, family educational experiences, and serves as a major development partner with more than 200 leading museums and research institutions. To learn more about the mission, the expedition and the exhibit, visit
www.discovery.com # # # | |||||||||||
|
|
