Special guest will be NASA Astronaut Rick Linnehan, who will speak on Living & Working in Space and present the Alex Higgins Memorial Space Camp Scholarship awards. Linnehan grew up in NH, and graduated from Pelham High School. He became a NASA Astronaut in 1992.
Members from UNH’s CATSAT Team will explain how they “Built a Satellite, Launching Careers” – Dr. Jim Ryan (UNH), Lead Engineers Ken Levenson and Mark Granoff will speak about designing and building CATSAT, the extraordinary team that worked on it, and where their lives have taken them since CATSAT.
Special Activities include: Raytheon: Math Moves U table, engineering tables; NH Aviation Bureau with a station with an aviation simulator, and a new display of aviation art from NH; Plymouth State University Meteorology Team and Mount Washington Observatory on Weather; NH Astronomical Society: Using Telescopes to View the Heavens; FIRST Robotics will have a robot visitors can operate, as well as robotics demos; and Squam Lakes will have live raptors, Nature’s Cool Flying Machines!
A new exhibit will open at the Discovery Center: Roll, Drop, Bounce: The Science of Motion.
And, “Space Junk”, a new planetarium show from Melrae Pictures, premieres at Aerospacefest. Narrated by Academy Award nominee Tom Wilkinson, “Space Junk” tells the story of how an orbiting junkyard of cast-off space debris – items like paint chips from space shuttles, dead satellites – have amassed in low Earth orbit to a degree that they are potentially jeopardizing space exploration for future generations.
The event is sponsored by the New Hampshire Space Grant Consortium and the Associated Grocers of New England, and will be indoors except for the NH Astronomical Society, which will be on the Discovery Center lawn.
Cost of admission to Aerospacefest: $15 for adults, $13 for students and seniors, $10 for children ages 3-12, free for members and for kids 0-2 years old.
The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center features 21st century interactive exhibits on aviation, astronomy, Earth and space sciences, a state-of-the-art planetarium and a variety of science, technology, and engineering and mathematics programs. The engaging, robust educational programs are geared towards families, teens, seniors, students, community groups and lifelong learners. For more information, visit www.starhop.com.