Here, on a small patch of the Kennedy Space Center`s 140,000 acres, is where the space program sells itself most intimately to the American public.
And despite the disastrous blow of Space Shuttle Challenger`s midair explosion Jan. 28, Americans are still buying.
Spaceport is the visitor`s center. Its exhibits range from spacesuits to missiles; its theater from slides to a space shuttle movie on a five-story high screen; its products from a ”lunch-pad” restaurant to a souvenir shop.
After Challenger`s ill-fated launch, Spaceport USA closed for the afternoon. It reopened the next day, to an estimated 1,300 people.
That was less than half its normal attendance, said George Meguiar, Spaceport`s public relations manager.
Since then, however, ”we`ve drawn 3,500 to 4,000 a day,” he said.
Sitting in his office in front of a wall-sized poster of Shuttle Discovery, one of Challenger`s three mate vehicles, Meguair said, ”I don`t think the increase is because of the tragedy, but rather in spite of it.
”We were averaging 3,500 a day this month before the mishap, and that was 39 per cent ahead of last January.”
Among the crowd walking the grounds late last week was Debbie Rauschenberger, an Anchorage, Alaska, flight attendant.
”To be honest, I`m more interested because of what happened last week,” she said. ”But I`ve always wanted to see and learn more about the space program. I`m in Florida visiting my folks.”
Asked how she felt about the space program`s future, she said, ”I fly for a living, and I believe it is safe. Yes, I would ride on a shuttle. Maybe not tomorrow, but I would.”
Autoworker John Malicki and his wife, Barbara, who works at Disneyland, came to Florida from Cerritos, Calif., to visit Disney World and Epcot Center. They added a stop here, but said it was not because of the crash.
”We have friends in the space program,” Mrs. Malicki said.
She said they had hunted for mementos of the Challenger mission, and they bought the only ones they could find: buttons printed with the mission`s name, a photo of Christa McAuliffe, and a design including the words ”Teacher in Space Project.”
The buttons were printed by Unique Button Works of Silver Springs, Fla. Unique has printed buttons for all 25 shuttle launches, and individual buttons of Sally Ride, the first American woman in space; Guion Bluford, the first black in space; and McAuliffe (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text).
A phone call to the company reached someone who said he was the owner but did not give his name.
”We`ve been working 10 to 14 hours a day, trying to keep up with orders from Spaceport and other dealers,” he said. ”At first, I was hesitant to make more. I didn`t want it to look like I was profiteering. But people just seem to want to be close to something from this mission.”
”It`s not the way I like to make money,” he said, conceding that suspension of the space program means that he probably won`t be printing new buttons for quite some time.
One display has been added at Spaceport USA since the explosion. Framed in glass under the words ”In Memoriam” is a color photograph of Challenger Mission STS 51-L crew members McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, pilot Michael Smith and Commander Francis Scobee.
But the Malickis agreed that they were most affected by watching the movie, ”The Dream is Alive,” shown on the five-story screen.
The movie mixes tension, in tight close-ups of shuttle launches with deafening sound, with lighthearted ”home-movie” footage of crew members eating, brushing their teeth and combing their hair in the weightlessness of space.
”It was scary,” said Malicki. ”Especially to see the ones who got killed.”
Astronauts Resnik, McNair and Scobee are among the film`s ”stars.”
Before each showing, a narrator announces to the audience that the film is dedicated to them.
Early in the film, during a launch of Shuttle Discovery, the solid rocket boosters are ejected in a loud burst. At one showing Thursday, the audience gasped at that point. Its similarity to the Challenger explosion was striking. Strolling the grounds here, visitors pass among a forest of space-launch rockets. Smallest among them is the 83-foot high Mercury-Redstone launch vehicle that carried astronaut Alan B. Shephard on the first U.S. spaceflight May 5, 1961.
Even as they drank in the show put on here by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, some visitors expressed concern the same NASA is not as forthcoming with information about what happened to Challenger.
”If they want the support of the people who are footing the bill, they have to be honest with us,” said John Oyler, a retired dry cleaner owner from Oak Hill, W. Va. ”I guess it`s just that they want to be sure before they say anything.”
”I don`t think the public really knows what`s going on,” Malicki said.
”It`s not really a cover-up, but they`re holding back some things.”
Nonetheless, crowds continue to flock to what NASA does make available here–munching snacks, queuing up at the ”The Dream is Alive” ticket counter and sales counters in the souvenir shop.
Among the exhibits they passed was a collection of letters from school children.
One was dated March 3, 1985. The writer`s last name and address in Canada were covered with white tape.
The printed letter began, ”My name is Sarah. I am 5 1/2 years old. I want to be the first child in space. . .”
