NASA’s Spaceship Of The Future Coming To UA

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — NASA’s “Starship 2040,” a full-sized mock-up of a commercial spacecraft as it might look in the future, will visit The University of Alabama campus Feb. 10-12.

Special VIP tours will take place Saturday, Feb. 10 (UA President Andrew Sorensen will tour the spacecraft at 5 p.m.), and the exhibit is open to the public on Sunday, Feb. 11, from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. and Monday, Feb. 12, from 8 a.m.-3 p.m.

In this free exhibit on the UA Quad, visitors will walk through a 48-foot simulation of the spacecraft’s control, passenger and engineering compartments. The visit is part of a seven-city tour of Alabama and Mississippi.

The visit will also include a lecture titled “Building the Highway to Space,” on Monday, Feb. 12, at 7 p.m. in 101 Bevill Building. The lecture will be presented by Mark Fisher, X-34 project manager from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The X-34 project is part of the Pathfinder Program at Marshall. The X-34 rocket plane is designed to be launched from beneath a modified jetliner and powered by a reusable engine. Capable of traveling eight times the speed of sound, it is expected to fly roughly 50 miles high and land on conventional runways.

Starship 2040 will be making stops across the country, visiting universities, government institutions and communities which have partnership roles in NASA’s space transportation, propulsion and science research programs.