McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center
In the decade of the 1960’s
many children dreamed of astronauts and spaceflight. The majority grew up to replace that dream with the reality of careers
and families; as did Bruce Olds of Spacecraft Exhibits. This Thonotosassa, Florida man however recreates and preserves that era of
exploration in a most unique way. He and he alone is the only supplier in the world of full scale Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo
capsules authentically made of metal.
These qualities
made our decision to employ Spacecraft Exhibits a wise one; said Sandt Michener of the McAuliffe/Shepard
Discovery Center. We received much more than anticipated. Bruce met our unreasonable timeline with cooperation and enthusiasm.
His capabilities seem endless. We are convinced the level of detail on this Freedom 7 capsule is only rivaled by the actual
one located at the Smithsonian.
Bruce explains that each
project is a challenge that begins with countless hours of researching his library that overflows with NASA books, technical
manuals and diagrams. “It’s a passion, you can’t arbitrarily do this.”
Visitors who examine Bruce’s
work would be surprised to find it was not produced in a factory full of engineers but in a modest shop by one man- start
to finish.
My goal is to introduce
people to the early years of spaceflight and ultimately how we got to the moon, exclaims Bruce. It was a time of bold technological
advances; heroes and great national pride.
This display of the Freedom
7 Mercury capsule represents America’s
first manned space flight piloted by Alan B. Shepard, Jr. on May 5, 1961.
Shepard was a native of
New Hampshire born November 18, 1923 in East Derry. He is
the only Mercury astronaut to land on the moon in 1971 on Apollo 14.
