Ardmore Welcome Center

Just south of the Tennessee border on I-65 is the Ardmore Welcome Center, which for a time boasted a Saturn IB. The Field Guide listed this as the tallest standing rocket on display in the U.S.

Although the rocket underwent periodic maintenance as well as some interior improvements in 2016, rockets are designed to be as lightweight as possible rather than to endure constant exposure to weather, and the cumulative effects of such exposure since it was emplaced in 1979 eventually led it to be declared structurally compromised and a decision to demolish the rocket.

Demolition began on August 3, 2023 and was completed by October of that year. The U.S. Space & Rocket Center and Marshall Space Flight Center saved a number of items from the rocket after its demolition, and I was able to visit some of them at the USSRC in spring of 2024. Although these artifacts were physically located at the Rocket Center, I present photos of them here, along with photos of the rocket prior to its demise.

I visited the Saturn IB over the course of several years, as it is along the route from my home in Wisconsin to the USSRC. For a while, it seemed that each time we visited, the green growth on the northwest side of the S-IB got more prominent, as did the graffiti. They repainted it in June 2006; we visited "about two weeks" after the painting was completed (as estimated by a grounds keeper), but it had already been vandalized. They erected a fence around the Saturn before our next visit in July 2007, which helped protect the rocket from vandals (but also precluded additional photography of the aft end of the rocket).

The state of Alabama has allocated funds to erect a replica, although I have been unable to learn any additional details on the progress of this effort.

Google Maps link to the rocket's former location.

As of now, I have not yet sorted through all of my pictures from the Ardmore Welcome Center, but some other page references this location. Thus, this is a "place holder" version right now, with only the pictures actually referenced. Come back some time later to see if I've finished up, or drop me an email to request me to prioritize the rest of these pictures.