Mercury astronauts headline day ‘Celebrating 50 Years of Americans in Orbit’

To mark the 50th anniversary of NASA’s Project Mercury, which made history by sending an American into orbit for the first time, the Kennedy Space Center is holding a celebration entitled “Celebrating 50 Years of Americans in Orbit”. It will take place on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2012 starting at 9 a.m. with festivities taking place all day.

The main event is the “On the Shoulders of Giants” presentation at 6:30 p.m. featuring appearances by Mercury astronauts John Glenn and Scott Carpenter. They will be honoring all those who made Project Mercury possible and signing an artifact which will be placed on permanent display. Other speakers at the presentation include Kennedy Space Center Director Robert Cabana, Senator Bill Nelson and space shuttle astronaut Stephen Robinson.

Other highlights of the celebration include a display of space-themed artwork created by area students, a United Launch Alliance (ULA) presentation discussing the Atlas rocket, NASA exhibitions on the future of human spaceflight and more.

The event is included with admission to the Kennedy Space Center which is $43 plus tax for adults and $33 plus tax for children ages 3-11. Bleacher style seating for the main event is available for the first 750 guests to enter the Visitor Complex, other visitors are encouraged to bring blankets and folding chairs for seating.

Admission to the “On the Shoulders of Giants” presentation is only $15 plus tax and includes limited admission to the Visitor Complex from 3 to 6 p.m. For more information or to buy tickets visit KennedySpaceCenter.com or call 1-866-737-5235.

MouseFanTravel

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *