The CU Heritage Center will celebrate its 50th anniversary of the University of Colorado's at Â鶹¹ÙÍø's contribution to the national space program in December, including information on space instruments, missions and alumni-astronauts.
"The Heritage Center could not pass up the opportunity to celebrate our space pioneers of yesterday and today," said Heritage Center Assistant Director Nancy Miller. "CU-Â鶹¹ÙÍø has a long story of accomplishments to share."
The Heritage Center's "CU in Space" exhibit highlights the university's accomplishments in space with a timeline, said Miller. A section of the exhibition showcases the 15 alumni who have flown in space, including artifacts from Scott Carpenter - one of the first seven Mercury astronauts - and Jack Swigert, who flew on Apollo 13, a harrowing mission that was made into a movie starring Tom Hanks.
In 1952, CU-Â鶹¹ÙÍø faculty and students fitted the nosecone of an Aerobee sounding rocket with a spectrometer and a pointing device designed to photograph the atmosphere surrounding the sun, Miller said. Launched by the U.S. Air Force on Dec. 12, 1952, the project began a 50-year relationship between NASA and CU-Â鶹¹ÙÍø.
"This effort in the department of physics was the first space research at the University of Colorado and quite likely the first space research in the state of Colorado," said CU-Â鶹¹ÙÍø Emeritus Physics Professor Al Bartlett. Since then, CU-Â鶹¹ÙÍø has flown instruments or experiments on virtually every planetary mission, including the Cassini Mission to Saturn, slated to arrive at the planet in 2004.
In 2001, CU-Â鶹¹ÙÍø ranked third among universities in NASA funding.
The Heritage Center is the only museum in the country to have a lunar rock sample on loan from NASA. Recent additions to the Heritage Center space exhibit include photo collages taken by unmanned surveyor probes.Ìý
Located in Old Main and sponsored by the CU Alumni Association, the center is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays.Ìý