Roachwerks Little Joe II

[GuyNoir]

but our trip was not totally in vain. We went to the Virginia Air & Space Center and the Wallops Island Visitor Center Museum.

We were just back in VA the first weekend of June to visit my dad, but didn't have a chance to pick off the Wallops Visitor Center. What did you see that was interesting? (I have a great embroidered T-shirt from the gift shop there with a Black Brant 10 on it!)

 

[Gus]

We were just back in VA the first weekend of June to visit my dad, but didn't have a chance to pick off the Wallops Visitor Center. What did you see that was interesting? (I have a great embroidered T-shirt from the gift shop there with a Black Brant 10 on it!)

Bunny,

The museum was a real disappointment (but the gift shop was very nice, LOL). Most of the "exhibits" were simply poster presentations. Almost no hardware at all. There was a nice model of how big the research balloons Wallops launches get at altitude. And there was a nice earth science display. But almost nothing of any interest on the multitude of great rockets they've launched there. Wallops has contributed mightily to our manned program and the suborbital work they've done for the last 50 years has produced tons of valuable data. But the museum gave little sense of what the place has contributed. Really kind of sad.

Outside, out behind the building, they have a Little Joe booster. No mention of which flight it is supposed to represent. The capsule looks like a production capsule, not one of the boilerplates, but it does not appear in the Field Guide to American Spacecraft list so I presume it is a reproduction.

They had a couple of Nike sounding rockets out front and out in the grass to the side of the building. The mosquitos were truly ferocious so there was zero possibility of lingering and looking.

We did notice a local business with your last name on it. We wondered if you still have family members in the area.

And we spent a wonderful day bicycling around Chincoteague and Assateague. We commented several times on what a great place it would be to grow up in.

 

[billspad]

Outside, out behind the building, they have a Little Joe booster. No mention of which flight it is supposed to represent. The capsule looks like a production capsule, not one of the boilerplates, but it does not appear in the Field Guide to American Spacecraft list so I presume it is a reproduction.

Unless they've changed things since I was there 10 years ago, the Little Joe, capsule, and tower are all reproductions. There were no boosters that weren't flown and, like you said, the capsules are all accounted for.

 

[GuyNoir]

Really kind of sad.

Well, it's not the NASA facility it once was, for sure.

The visitor center takes in a lot of people between Memorial and Labor Day, but is quiet otherwise. And no, they don't do the world's greatest job of curation there. I think that' s money related.

We did notice a local business with your last name on it. We wondered if you still have family members in the area.

Bundick is a VERY common last name there, but there are lots of different lines. I have a genology of our family tree that goes back to 1620.

My father is still back there, in the same house I grew up in. He turned 91 in April, and is still living on his own, driving, of sound mind, and reasonably sound body, especially for a man who grew up on a farm where they made their own soap.

My older brother Michael lives just across the state line in Maryland.

Oh, and there's a family picture Barb took while we were visiting, up at my Facebook page if you're particularly curious.

We commented several times on what a great place it would be to grow up in.

Like most other places, I can say both good and not so good things about it. Let's just say rural eastern Virginia didn't have the most expansive world view of things, but they took care of their own.

 

[MaxQ]

Unless they've changed things since I was there 10 years ago, the Little Joe, capsule, and tower are all reproductions. There were no boosters that weren't flown and, like you said, the capsules are all accounted for.

These were there recently..

If you were fortunate enough to join the MDRA folks with their HPR exhibit and be at the Wallops Anniversary and Open House several years ago, you were able to get into the work shops and see them machining parts for sounding rockets and testing the components...the full size vibration test stand was a real hoot.

Short vid of the weekend here:

https://www.mdra-archive.org/photos/MDRAwallops/BobUtley/Full/wallopsintro3.wmv

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