NASA hosts fundraiser for Space Exploration Memorial project

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - Saturday was the start of a two-day fundraiser to support the creation of the Space Exploration Memorial.

As a part of the new Rocket Park, the project aims to give credit to everybody who helped shape space exploration into what it is today -- especially those who worked here in the Rocket City.

“This is just a part of making sure that we don’t lose that history and we preserve the legacy of all of those people that came into our community, that lived in the community, to make something like this possible,” said Madison County Commission Mac McCutcheon, who was in attendance. “It’s something very special.”

Parker Counts has spent four decades working for NASA, now serving as a consultant for the Artemis program. He says one of the more difficult pieces of this project is just tracking down who all deserves their dues.

“We’re reaching out to all the current organizations in Marshall as well as those who passed,” Counts says. “Many of us have relationships to contractors and we want to get those names in the database.”

Counts added that tonight they were able to get 23,000 of those names from Marshall Space Flight Center, but knows there are still many others who had a hand in space programs.

Groundbreaking for the project was just a couple of weeks ago. It’ll be many months before it’s finished, but the vision for the project is already crystal clear.

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