Wondering about the rest area rocket? Here is the last

A reader asked: When will a decision be made whether a new rocket or replica will be placed at the renovated rest stop on I-65 on the Tennessee-Alabama border? If a decision has been made, what will replace the old one?

The answer: everything is still under construction.

No new rockets will be arriving at the state border visitor center anytime soon, according to one of the replacement project’s biggest advocates in the state Legislature: Sen. Tom Butler State. First, said this month that proponents of a new rocket for the center must first find one to replace the dismantled Saturn 1B in 2023. And the challenges start there.

The original rocket was developed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville and loaned to the US Space & Rocket Center as excess stock in the late 1970s. It was erected along southbound Interstate 65 in Center of Alabama in 1979.

The rocket deteriorated over the decades and NASA tasked the Space & Rocket Center with dismantling it, according to AL.com. Efforts were made to save it, but AL.com reported that “the rocket was in no condition to be preserved and the cost would be prohibitive.”

The state legislature passed a law in 2023 for the installation of a mock-up.

“I haven’t heard anything,” Butler said this week. But he added that there was “a question of ownership” regarding any rocket considered as a replacement. And would this owner be willing to help financially?

“Obviously the state of Alabama doesn’t make rockets,” Butler said. “We have a lot of things we do there and a lot of things we shouldn’t do, but this is out of our league.

“I would like to see the rocket returned to service,” Butler said. This would improve the image of the state and show the progress in its history. “This flare really makes up for the whole state when people come to Alabama with maybe the expectation that people won’t wear shoes,” Butler said.

Butler said NASA and the state would be key to any replacement. “Is there a rocket?” What would it take to get permission to install a rocket there? And what would the cost be? he said.

Butler called for “a small study commission” led by the governor to examine these issues.

Butler represents western Madison County and part of Limestone County in the Legislature.