American Dynasty

      The Christa McAuliffe Space Center in Pleasant Grove is once again displaying the space mural which use to hang in the old Central School hallway leading to the stage and Starship Voyager entrance.  For twenty years, Space Center visitors saw the mural either in the Briefing Room or the hallway. The mural was put into storage just before the old school was demolished a couple years ago.      The mural's new home is the wall along the planetarium's exit hallway pictured below.  The mural's black frame took a beating during removal and storage but not to fear, work is underway to restore the frame. The Christa McAuliffe Space Center The Story Behind the Mural The mural's story begins in 1986.  I took a group of Central School's Young Astronauts to the Johnson Space Center in Houston on a field trip.  While there I saw a beautiful space mural painted by Bob McCall on a wall just outside of the JSC's auditorium.   Opening the...

Hello Space Center Fans, The CMSC's Falcon simulator has a logo.  It was presented on the Space Center's Facebook page.  All six simulators are logoed up now.  The Falcon is the one non-Starfleet ship in the CMSC's fleet.  The ship's crews get up to mischief on occasion, but generally are out to make a buck or two.   American Heritage School's Starship Flight Stations are Complete Alex Debirk is the director of the soon to open space center at American Heritage School in American Fork.  He and his high school students have been busy in the school's Creativity Lab designing and constructing the starship's furniture.  This week Alex announced the completion of the front two flight stations. They are very Star Trek in appearance and beautiful to behold. I'm excited to give them a trail run once the starship opens in January.   Meet a Few More of The Space Place's Young Astronaut Squadrons at Renaissance Academy Every weekday after...

Hello Troops, I remember November 8, 1990 very well. I was nervous. I had doubts. I questioned whether I knew what I was doing and I knew there were others who thought the same.  It was a risky endeavour, something no teacher in the Alpine District had done before - add an addition to a school and start a entirely new district wide program.  Honor's Night. Look at all those earning their one year volunteering pin The vision of creating a 'Space Center' started with my 6th grade Young Astronaut Club and a 1986 Young Astronauts conference trip to Japan. During that convention I met the director of the Kino Learning Center in Tucson Arizona. Her school had a rather large space shuttle simulator in the school's library used for simulated space missions. If she could do it then so could I. The dream was born.  I envisioned our Young Astronauts poster board classroom starship simulator (the USS Pegasus) could have a permanent home of its own in the classroom wher...