"The U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama is a museum operated by the government of Alabama, showcasing rockets, achievements, and artifacts of the U.S. space program. Sometimes billed as "Earth's largest space museum", astronaut Owen Garriott described the place as, "a great way to learn about space in a town that has embraced the space program from the very beginning," the Wikipedia says.

"The U.S. Space & Rocket Center has one of the most extensive collections of space artifacts and displays more than 1500 pieces. Displays include rockets, engines, spacecraft, simulators, and hands-on exhibits. The Space Shuttle Pathfinder, sometimes described as the first manufactured Space Shuttle Orbiter, was a mockup made of steel and wood to test facilities for later handling the actual vehicle. Until it was removed for refurbishment in February 2021 it sat atop an external tank with solid rocket boosters attached. The tank and boosters remain.

"The Space & Rocket Center saw 540,153 visitors in 2010 and 553,137 in 2011,[65] and over 584,000 in 2013, the latter earning the museum recognition as the top paid-tourist attraction in Alabama. In 2017, more than 786,820 people visited the center, ranking it first among state attractions that charge admission, according to the Alabama Department of Tourism."

"Ready for blast off! Huntsville’s US Space & Rocket Center has plans to give the iconic full-size replica of the space shuttle a face lift. After years of weathering, let’s take a look at the history of this Alabama landmark and what’s in store," the Bham Now reports.

"Tuesday, January 19, the space center announced they’ll be restoring the shuttle thanks to a $500,000 federal grant and donations. The restoration is definitely needed as the shuttle has been open to the elements and has become quite weathered over the past 30 years.

"The entire restoration is estimated to take several years and we’re looking forward to checking out the end result."

"Towering rockets. Priceless moon memorabilia. If you want to see that caliber of space booty you probably wouldn't set your GPS for northern Alabama -- but that'd be a mistake, for that's the home of the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. It hosts an impressive collection of space hardware, and it's far less of a hassle to visit than the often Disney-crowded Kennedy Space Center in Florida," the Roadside America says.

"They're lured by the 363-foot-tall Saturn V moon rocket that stands outside -- an exact replica built at considerable expense in 1999 (The 30th anniversary of the first moon landing). Behind the main museum building (admission only) is the even more impressive Pathfinder, an obscure test-model full-size Space Shuttle built in Huntsville in 1977. It's displayed "Full Stack," meaning that it's mounted to its booster rockets and massive external fuel tank, which were the Shuttle parts overseen by the Marshall Space Flight Center. (As of January 2021, the Shuttle has been disassembled for repairs and restoration, which is expected to take years.)

"Among the museum's original 1970 outdoor displays are an acre-size crumbly-crater replica of the lunar surface, and a 1960s MOLAB moon truck, built when von Braun wanted to send two rockets to the moon at once, one reserved just to haul all the astro-gear his engineers had designed."

"An early mockup-turned-model of NASA's space shuttle orbiter, the Pathfinder was lowered from its towering outdoor display at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama on Monday (Feb. 8), to undergo a multi-year, multi-million-dollar restoration," the Space.com reports.

"Partially dissembled in preparation for its removal, the wingless and tailless Pathfinder made the 80-foot (24-meter) descent by crane, touching the ground for the first time since it was hoisted atop its exhibit's external tank and solid rocket boosters on May 5, 1988. During the intervening 30 years, Pathfinder became a landmark, but also developed structural issues that led to the current effort.

"That is why we really needed to get it down, to look at the structure," said Patricia Ammons, senior director of communications, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. "Do we have wear and tear on the metal? What is it that we're really dealing with?"

"Huntsville is home to the state's most visited attraction and the largest space museum in the world: the U.S. Space & Rocket Center (USSRC). The USSRC is a Smithsonian Affiliate and the Official Visitor Center for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center," the Huntsville.org reports.

"Not only is America’s space program on exhibit in Huntsville, but it was also forged here. We’re known as the “Rocket City” because Huntsville, Alabama, is where the rockets that put man on the moon were developed.

"A space enthusiast, history buff, appreciator of the arts, or anyone with a general curiosity for how the world works would enjoy Alabama’s top tourism jewel. Where else can one stand beneath the world’s only full-stack Space Shuttle, complete with two solid rocket boosters and external tank? Or walk the length of a suspended authentic Saturn V moon rocket?"

"While most visitors to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center think Pathfinder is just a full-scale recreation of a Space Shuttle stack, everything on this display is actually a real artifact of aviation history. Pathfinder is one of three official Orbiter Vehicle test articles. Unofficially labeled as OV-098, it was built in 1977 by NASA and was at the time unnamed,"  the Atlas Obscura says.

"Made as a full-scale simulator of the shuttle (it was about the same weight, size, and shape of an actual Orbiter vehicle), Pathfinder was used for ground testing in the place of the much more expensive—also quite delicate—Space Shuttle Enterprise. As a result, Pathfinder was used for a whole range of testing purposes like making sure the machinery could fit within the appropriate structures and checking roadway clearances and crane capabilities.

"Pathfinder is displayed with the Main Propulsion Test Article External Tank (MPTA-ET), the large orange tank currently attached to it. Though it never made it to space, the MPTA-ET was the first of these iconic orange tanks ever produced. Attached to the MPTA-ET are two Shuttle Rocket Booster (SRB) casings, which had previously been prepared to launch polar-orbit missions from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The U.S. Space and Rocket Center is one of only four places to view SRB’s."