Marshall Space Flight Center Engine Displays

Marshall Space Flight Center placed a number of rocket engines on display in front of its main administration building, Building 4200, and Building 4205, the Propulsion Research Development Laboratory, in 2008 and 2009. Of course, one does not just plop rocket engines in front of a building and call it a day; there are months of preparation required.

Two MSFC employees documented the preparation and installation, and I present those photos here.

Most of the photos (all except for the photo sets of the earlier Building 4200 engine display, the engines in storage, and the installation of the engines in front of Building 4200) were provided by Doug Galloway. Doug was an Engineering Technician and Building Manager at Marshall Space Flight Center and documented preparation and installation of the engines in front of a number of MSFC buildings.

He initially uploaded the photos to a photo-sharing Website called "Webshots", although that site went off the Internet only a few years later (I see that there is currently a webshots.com, although that appears to be a different entity).

I met Doug through a friend; the latter also sent me a link to Webshots. Doug was later able to put me in touch with the engineers who disassembled the F-1 rocket engine. He also showed me around Propulsion Park and the turbopump museum which was formerly located near the entrance to Building 4205 during one of my visits, and arranged for my wife and me to have a VIP tour of the major MSFC landmarks (including going up to the top of the Dynamic Test Stand and the S-IC Test Stand).

After Webshots went off the Internet, I contacted him to see if he still had the photos he had uploaded. He was going through some health issues at the time which prevented him from getting me the photos. Sadly, he passed away a few years later at the age of 53. However, I was able (more recently) to extract the photos from archive.org's Wayback Machine, so I am able to share the photos here in a more accessible venue.

The other photo sets were passed to me by a MSFC employee who wishes to remain anonymous.