One of the high points of Dr. Victor Danilov’s presidency was the construction in the mid-1980s of the Henry Crown Space Center behind the East Pavilion of the Museum of Science and Industry (M.S.I.). [Dr. Victor Danilov (1924-2018) served as the Director of the M.S.I. from 1972 to 1987 and President of the M.S.I. from 1978 to 1987.] The 31,000-square-foot Henry Crown Space Center (H.C.S.C.) is a one-story addition to the M.S.I. that stands south of the East Pavilion, and openedin 1986. Designed by Hammel Green & Abrahamson, Inc., the H.C.S.C. has a limestone base, a metal panel roof, and a seventy-six-foot projection dome fashioned of copper and stone. The artifacts on display include the Aurora 7 Mercury space capsule,[1] the Apollo 8 Command Module,[2] a Lunar Module trainer used by Apollo astronauts to train for missions to the Moon, and a full-scale model of N.A.S.A.’s Cassini space probe built for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1992.
When philanthropist Susan Crown asked Dr. Danilov about what the Museum could really use (other than tuck-pointing, which did not interest her) by saying the Museum could use expansion in the form of a space pavilion.[3] She had wanted to donate $250,000 for the fiftieth anniversary fundraising campaign, but the thought of donating a significantly larger sum to fund the construction of an outer space pavilion piqued her interest and she told Dr. Danilov she would confer with the rest of her family and get back to him.[4]
Jay Pridmore is no doubt right in speculating in Inventive Genius: The History of Museum of Science and Industry Chicago it was N.A.S.A.’s decision to designate the M.S.I. as “the official Midwest repository of space artifacts” that prompted Dr. Danilov’s answer.[5] Susan Crown’s paternal grandfather, Colonel Henry Crown (1896-1990), had been instrumental in bringing the U-505 to the Museum, and the Crowns wanted something at the Museum that would be a fitting tribute to him (rather than, say, a plaque at the U-505).[6] The Crowns had controlling interest in General Dynamics, which was an aerospace as well as a submarine manufacturer at the time, though in 1993 General Dynamics sold its Space Systems Division to Martin Marietta, and “agreed to fund a significant portion” of the” $12,250,000 project, so a space pavilion was certainly appropriate.[7]
William Weiss, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of American Information Technologies Corporation (a.k.a. Ameritech),[8] was Chairman of the 50th Anniversary Campaign – Phase II committee.[9] His six co-chairmen were Lester Crown, Chairman of Material Services Corporation; Walter S. Peirson, Executive Vice President of Standard Oil & Company; Frank W. Considine, President of National Can Corporation; Edward W. Duffy, Chairman of U.S. Gypsum Company; Frederick G. Jaicks, retired Chairman of Inland Steel Company, and Charles S. Locke, Chairman & C.E.O. of Morton Thiokol, Inc.[10] Locke later became Chairman of the Museum’s Board of Trustees. In April of 1984, the M.S.I. announced that a gift of $1,000,000 was given to the H.C.S.C.-building fund by Locke on behalf of Morton Thiokol, Inc., a Chicago-based manufacturer and marketer of chemicals, high-technology propulsion systems, salt, and household products.[11] G.D. Serle & Company and Interlake, Inc. each donated sums of between $5,000 and $9,999, the Interlake money being used to crate an elaborate model of the H.C.S.C.[12] The Morton Thiokol gift brought the amount of money thus far raised for building the H.C.S.C., which had a projected cost of $10,000,000, to over $5,000,000.[13] The M.S.I. announced in a press release dated December 18, 1984 that on that date the AT&T Foundation had donated the first in a series of five equal annual payments of $30,000, leading to an eventual total of $150,000.[14]
The architectural firm of Hammel Green & Abrahamson, Inc. of Minneapolis, Minnesota designed the Space Center.[15] W. Michael Sullivan Consulting Services aided in the project by providing a cost analysis of the Omnimax Theater. Both firms were Omnimax theater specialists.[16] Hammel Green & Abrahamson, Inc. had already designed the Omnimax theaters in the Alabama Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama; the Science Museum in Minneapolis, Minnesota; and the Fort Worth Science & History Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.[17] In 1983, they were also helping plan the construction of Omnimax theaters for the Buhl Science Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the National Museum of Science, Technology, and Industry in Paris, France.[18] As for W.M. Sullivan, he was former Director of the “Rueben H. Fleet Space Theater in San Diego – 3M Omnitheater at the Science Museum of Minnesota, described as one of the most technically advanced in the world.”[19] Chicago’s architectural firm Holabird & Root provided consulting architects for the project.[20] The firm Schal Associates was listed as “construction manager” in MSI’s press kit, probably indicating they were the primary contractor. The space exhibit was designed by Toshihiko Sakow Associates with aid from Bedno/Bedno Chicago.
The groundbreaking ceremony was held on Tuesday, February 5, 1985. H. Harry Henderson, Vice President of Interlake, Inc. was Master of Ceremonies at the event.[21] Bishop Placido Rodriguez of the Archdiocese of Chicago gave the invocation.[22] Colonel Henry Crown, son Lester Crown, M.S.I. Chairman of the Board Frederick G. Jaiks, and Dr. Victor J. Danilov, President & Director of the Museum, each took a turn with the shovel, which was a special shovel, a replica of one used by astronauts on the Moon.[23] A number of Crown family members were present in addition to Col. Henry Crown and Lester Crown, including their wives; Rebecca Crown and her husband Richard Robb; Mr.& Mrs. Charles H. Goodman; Susan Crown and her husband Bill Kunkler; Steven Crown; and Mr. & Mrs. Irving Crown. Altogether, there were almost 200 guests at the ceremony, reception, and luncheon.[24]
Two months later, on Tuesday, April 2, 1985, Danilov delivered a luncheon briefing about the Henry Crown Space Center for members of the Illinois congressional delegation in Room S-138 of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. This signifies that the construction of the Henry Crown Space Center at a Museum of Science and Industry was not simply a matter of building another pavilion at a science museum in a park in Chicago. It was a matter of some importance statewide and at the federal level. The Museum of Science and Industry is world-famous and attracts tourists from all over the planet, but the Henry Crown Space Center would serve as a venue for Chicagoans, Illinoisans, and Midwesterners who might never go near a N.A.S.A. launch pad, much less travel to the Moon or Mars, see tangible artifacts and specimens from N.A.S.A. and aerospace companies, to see how their tax money was being spent. The Henry Crown Space Center was also built to inspire future generations of astronomers and astronauts, as well as the more numerous engineers and technicians who work at N.A.S.A. and aerospace companies to enable astronomers to explore outer space. This has remained true as the Henry Crown Space Center has received competition in Chicago from an enlarged Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum and as N.A.S.A. has expanded cooperation with sister space exploration agencies in foreign countries (as, for example, with the International Space Station) and has outsourced constructing and launching rockets to private companies: Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), founded by Elon Musk in 2002; and Blue Origin, L.L.C., founded by Jeff Bezos in 2000; and United Launch Alliance, which is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Boeing Defense, Space & Security that formed in 2006.
Further, given that two generations of Americans have been born since Man last walked on Earth’s Moon, artifacts from the glory days of N.A.S.A. become increasingly precious. They may help inspire future astronauts colonize the Moon and explore Mars and the general public support those efforts.
On Monday, June 30, 1986, more than 400 guests attended an opening gala to mark the opening of the Henry Crown Space Center. Dr. Victor Danilov, President & Director of the M.S.I., presided. Henry Crown’s wife, Gladys Crown (died 1991), and son, Lester Crown, were present. Joseph Cardinal Bernadin (1928-1986), Archbishop of Chicago, gave the benediction. Mister and Mistress Richard H. Cooper of Cooperfund, Inc. underwrote the cost of holding the gala. On Tuesday, July 1, 1986, the M.S.I.’s Henry Crown Space Center opened to the public.
The Apollo 8 Command Module is on loan to the M.S.I.’s Henry Crown Space Center from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air & Space Museum. The Apollo 8 was the second manned space flight in the American Apollo program. It launched on December 21, 1968 and became the first manned spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit, reach the Moon, orbit it, and safely return to Earth. The three astronauts were the Commander, Colonel Frank Borman II, U.S. Air Force (Retired); the Command Module Pilot, Captain James (“Jim”) Lovell, Jr. U.S. Navy (Retired); and the Lunar Module Pilot, Major-General William Anders, U.S. Air Force Reserves (Retired). It was Anders who took the famous Earthrisepicture while in the Moon’s orbit.
On Tuesday, December 13, 1988, Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman; James A. Lovell, Jr.; and William Anders celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the first manned flight to orbit the Moon back in 1968 at a dinner in the Henry Crown Space Center with Mister and Mistress Lester Crown and Dr. and Mrs. James S. Kahn.[25] [Dr. James Steven Kahn (1931-2013) served as the seventh President & Chief Executive Officer of the Museum of Science and Industry from 1987 to 1997. He was the first president of the M.S.I. to be called “chief executive officer.”] More than 150 people attended the event, including Vice Admiral Richard H. Truly, N.A.S.A.’s Associate Administer for Space Flight. For the first time since their historic flight, all three men were reunited with the Apollo 8. For the Man in Space exhibit, the Air & Space Museum had also lent the M.S.I. Borman’s space suit and helmet from the Apollo 8 mission, samples of food like the three astronauts would have eaten on Apollo 8, lunar tools, and “space shuttle hygiene items.” Lovell had lent “intravehicular coverall garments he wore aboard the Apollo VIII and the flight instruction book containing lines from the Book of Genesis which were read by the Apollo VIII astronauts as they circled the Moon on Christmas Eve.”
On November 14, 1994, Captain Jim Lovell, Jr. appeared at the M.S.I. to sign copies of his book Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13. In addition to Captain Lovell having been one of the first three people to orbit Earth’s Moon when he piloted the command module of the Apollo 8 mission in 1968, in 1970 he had commanded the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission in 1970. A Chicagoland resident who had been raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and s longtime resident of the affluent Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, Illinois, he was a member of M.S.I.’s non-governing President’s Council. His co-author on Lost Moon had been the popular science writer Jeffrey Kluger. The book was later dramatized by director Ron Howard as the film Apollo 13 (1995), which starred Tom Hanks as Jim Lovell, Bill Paxton (1955-2017) as Fred Haise, Kevin Bacon as Jack Swigert, Gary Sinese as Ken Mattingly, Ed Harris as Gene Kranz, and Kathleen Quinlan as Marilyn Lovell.
When the 31,000-square-foot Great Hall (now called the Entry Hall) and new Burlington Zephyr exhibit All Aboard the Silver Streak opened on Thursday, July 16, 1998, the Great Hall included a life-size replica of the Cassini-Huygens roboticspace probe, a joint N.A.S.A.-E.S.A.-A.S.I.[26] mission consisting of two spacecraft. The Cassini Orbiter, named after the Italian astronomer and cartographer Giovanni Domenico Cassini[27] (1625-1712), is a robotic craft designed by the N.A.S.A. and the A.S.I. to study the rings of Saturn, Saturn’s moon Iapetus, andSaturn’s atmosphere. The Huygens Probe was a robotic atmospheric probe and lander designed by the E.S.A. to study Saturn’s moon Titan, separating from the Cassini Orbiter on Saturday, December 25, 2004, and touching down on Titan’s surface on Friday, January 14, 2005. The machine had been named after the Dutch mathematician, astronomer, and physicist Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695), who, amongst many other things, discovered Titan. The Cassini-Huygens replica was later placed in the Henry Crown Space Center.
“In our proposal to NASA, we had to detail how the spacecraft would be displayed, how it would be interpreted to the public, and show that we had the resources to maintain it,” Steve Bishop, Space Center and Omnimax Projects Manager for the Museum, stated. “For the Museum to be selected is a testimony to our professional skills and world-class stature.”
The Museum of Science and Industry was the Illinois partner in the Star Station One program and the best place in the state to get up-to-date information about the International Space Station (I.S.S.), between 1998 and 2002. The I.S.S. was under construction from 1998 to 2011. Its first permanent crew of five American astronauts and two Russian cosmonauts arrived aboard the space shuttle Atlantis in 2000.
Figure 1 Credit: J.B. Spector, Museum of Science and Industry Caption: Weightless in the International Space Station is simulated here, as seen on Thursday, January 24, 2008.
The VR Spacewalk combines V.R. (virtual-reality) goggles, motion, and 4D effects to give a first-person simulation of an astronaut making a spacewalk to repair the International Space Station 250 miles up in orbit until something goes wrong. This ride is not covered by Museum Entry (general admission) tickets. A separate, timed-entry ticket costs $10 ($9 for Museum Members). Up to four people may ride per cycle. It is recommended for teenagers and adults thirteen-years-of-age-and-over. Guests who are under thirteen years old but at least forty-two-inches tall may get on the ride provided they ride with the consent of a parent or guardian. Please note that eyeglasses cannot be worn with the V.R. headset. Read medical advisories at the exhibit.
Exhibits in Beaver Park
The Henry Crown Space Center’s connection to the East Pavilion via a gallery resulted in the U-505 and Burlington Zephyr – which were outdoors at the time the H.C.S.C. was built – being partially enclosed by something more substantial than a fence. A gate was then added between the H.C.S.C. and the East Pavilion to complete the courtyard effect. The enclosed space later became known as Beaver Park as a result of a beaver exhibit having been placed in that temporary outdoor exhibit display space. The beaver exhibit had been ancillary to a beaver Omnimax film. A Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) exhibition in 1989 may have been the first exhibit in that space.
In 1989, a replica of one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian houses temporarily stood in what would later become known as Beaver Park, between the Henry Crown Space Center and East Pavilion. The Museum’s exhibition Frank Lloyd Wright: Ideas & Treasures consisted of two parts. The larger of the two was a traveling exhibition, Frank Lloyd Wright: In the Realm of Ideas, organized by the Scottsdale Cultural Council and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. To this, the M.S.I. added another exhibition, The Dana Thomas House Treasures, consisting of furnishings Wright had designed for a residence he designed in Springfield, Illinois, the Dana-Thomas House, which was undergoing repairs. The highlight was a full-scale model Usonian Automatic House erected on the Museum grounds.[28]
The house for the exhibition Smart Home Green + Wired was designed by Michelle Kaufmann and erected in Beaver Park by All-American Homes using modular construction (pre-fabricated, stackable) methods. In 2008, the M.S.I. printed secular Christmas cards with a cover photo of the Smart Home decorated for Christmas. Smart Home Green + Wired reopened on March 19, 2009 with new furnishings and technologies provided with the support of the magazines Chicago Home + Garden and WIRED.
The Domed Theater
The Henry Crown Space Center opened with a 10,000-square-foot hall for the display of artifacts related to space exploration efforts and a 334-seat Omnimax® movie theater.[29] The cinema was to be equipped with a 70 mm high-resolution projection system with a 180-degree overhead screen and twelve high-fidelity “sound channels.” [30] The projector weighed 1,600 pounds. There were seventy speakers. The dome screen is five stories tall. It has more than 500 vinyl and aluminum panels that are 30% reflective. OMNIMAX and IMAX theater technologies were developed in the 1960s by the IMAX Systems Corporation of Toronto.[31] At the time the Museum of Science and Industry built the OMNIMAX Theater in the Henry Crown Space Center, films were produced for the OMNIMAX format by the IMAX Systems Corporation, a consortium of science museum theaters, and other organizations.[32]
The first film to be shown in the Omnimax® movie theater was The Dream is Alive (1985), a forty-minute-long documentary that used footage filmed by astronauts themselves and narrated by Walter Cronkite (1916-2009).[33] It ran for six months and was seen by approximately 500,000 people.[34] The second film to be screened there was Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets (1984), which featured a film score by Bill Conti, and was seen by approximately 600,000 people.[35]
The M.S.I. went on to produce Antarctica (1991), which was directed by John Weiley.[36] OMNIMAX and IMAX theaters all over the world screened it.[37]
From the 14th of September to the 5th of October in 2001, the M.S.I. played host to the first International OMNIMAX Film Festival. The Giant Screen Theater Association conference coincided with this event, and consequently, on Friday, September 21st and Monday, September 24th MSI’s OMNIMAX theater was not open.
The Henry Crown Space Center underwent renovations in the summer of 2007. The hallway connecting the H.C.S.C. to the East Pavilion was adorned with murals depicting the Milky Way galaxy and our solar system. Another addition was a timeline augmented by illustrations, a video, full-scale replicas, and scale models of past, present and near-future space-faring technologies.
In 2016, over 300,000 people visited the M.S.I.’s Omnimax® Theater. In May of 2017, the M.S.I. unveiled a state-of-the-art projection system in the Omnimax® Theater, which it renamed the Giant Dome Theater to emphasize the change in projection technology. The M.S.I. is the first institution in Chicago and the second in the world to install the new system from D3D/Christie Laser Dome, a company based in north suburban Evanston, Illinois. It uses three different laser projectors to create a composite image. The Dover Foundation supports the Giant Dome Theater.
Figure 5 Credit: Rachel Butler, BBC NHU 2016 Caption: Oceans: Our Blue Planet debuted at the Giant Dome Theater on Friday, March 16, 2018 and will be screened through Thursday, February 14, 2019 (Saint Valentine’s Day). It depicts exotic and extreme animals, including these walruses.
The Henry Crown Space Center can be rented out. It can accommodate 150 people if they are seated and 300 people for a reception. The Giant Dome Theater can be rented out in concurrence with the Henry Crown Space Center. It can accommodate an audience of 260 people.
On Tuesday, September 4, 2018, the M.S.I. reverted to regular hours (9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.). On the weekend of Saturday, November 17, 2018 and Sunday, November 18, 2018, the M.S.I. will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The M.S.I. will be closed on Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, November 22, 2018) and the First Day of Christmas (Tuesday, December 25, 2018). Extended hours (9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.) will be in play again from Friday, November 23, 2018 to Sunday, November 25, 2018; Saturday, December 1, 2018 and Sunday, December 2, 2018; Saturday, December 8, 2018 and Sunday, December 9, 2018; Saturday, December 15, 2018 and Sunday, December 2016; Sunday, December 23, 2018; and Wednesday, December 26, 2018 through Sunday, December 30, 2018. There will be longer hours, from 9:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 22, 2018. On Christmas Eve (Monday, December 24, 2018) and New Year’s Eve (Monday, December 31, 2018), the M.S.I. will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. On New Year’s Day (Tuesday, January 1, 2019), the M.S.I. will be open from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. From Wednesday, January 2, 2019 through Friday, January 4, 2019, the M.S.I. will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Regular hours (9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) will resume on Saturday, January 5, 2019. The Museum of Science and Industry regularly makes small adjustments to this schedule, so when planning a trip there, check this Webpage and the M.S.I.’s social media for updates.
EXTENDED HOURS AND EXCEPTIONS
| 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. | Saturday, November 17, 2018 Sunday, November 18, 2018 |
| Closed | Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, November 22, 2018) |
| 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. | Friday, November 23, 2018 Saturday, November 24, 2018 Sunday, November 25, 2018 |
| 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. | Saturday, December 1, 2018 Sunday, December 2, 2018 |
| 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. | Saturday, December 8, 2018 Sunday, December 9, 2018 |
| 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. | Saturday, December 15, 2018 Sunday, December 16, 2018 |
| 9:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. | Saturday, December 22, 2018 |
| 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. | Sunday, December 23, 2018 |
| 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. | Christmas Eve (Monday, December 24, 2018) |
| Closed | Christmas Day (Tuesday, December 25, 2018) |
| 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. | Wednesday, December 26, 2018 Thursday, December 27, 2018 Friday, December 28, 2018 Saturday, December 29, 2018 Sunday, December 30, 2018 |
| 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. | New Year’s Eve (Monday, December 31, 2018) |
| 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. | New Year’s Day (Tuesday, January 1, 2019) |
| 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. | Wednesday, January 2, 2019 Thursday, January 3, 2019 Friday, January 4, 2019 |
Often stylized as the “Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago” or the “Museum of Science + Industry” the institution is located at the northern end of the Chicago Park District’s Jackson Park, on the south side of 57th Street, between Lake Shore Drive to the east and Cornell Drive to the west, in the East Hyde Park neighborhood of the Hyde Park Community Area (Community Area #41) on the South Side of Chicago. The address is 5700 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60637. The M.S.I. is open every day of the year with two exceptions: Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. On most days, it is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., but during peak periods it is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The Website is https://www.msichicago.org/ and the phone number is (773) 684-1414.
Help Keep the Lights On
If you like this content, you can help keep more of it coming with a one-time payment.
$1.00
ENDNOTES
[1] Commander Scott Carpenter (1925-2013), U.S. Navy, was the fourth American astronaut to enter outer space and the second to orbit the Earth when he rode the Mercury 7 in three revolutions of the Earth in May of 1962.
[2] The Apollo 8 Command Module was home to astronauts Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, Junior; and William Anders during their lunar orbital mission in 1968.
[3] Jay Pridmore. Inventive Genius: The History of the Museum of Science and Industry Chicago. Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago (1996), p. 136
[4] Pridmore, p. 136
[5] Pridmore, p. 136
[6] Henry Crown’s son, Robert Crown (1921-1969), was co-chairman of the committee that brought the U-505 to Chicago.
[7] Pridmore, pages 136 & 137
[8] Ameritech was a holding company for Illinois Bell, Indiana Bell, Wisconsin Bell, Michigan Bell, and Ohio Bell. It merged with SBC (formerly Southwestern Bell Corporation) in 1998-99, and SBC acquired the former parent company AT&T Corporation in 2005, becoming AT&T, Inc., followed by BellSouth in 2006.
[9] “Morton Thiokol Makes $1-Million to Campaign,” Progress, p. 3
[10] Ibid
[11] Museum of Science and Industry, “Morton Thiokol Makes $1-Million Gift to Museum of Science and Industry’s Space Center,” press release, April 10, 1984, pages 1 & 2
[12] “Morton Thiokol Makes $1-Million to Campaign,” Progress, p. 3
[13] “Morton Thiokol Makes $1-Million to Campaign,” Progress, p. 3
[14] Museum of Science and Industry, “AT&T Foundation Gives $30,000 Check to Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry,” press release, December 18, 1984, Museum of Science and Industry, Institutional Archives, Exhibit Design, Box 20, file “Space Center 1984”
[15] “Work Begins on Space Center,” November-December 1984, Progress, p. 7
[16] Museum of Science and Industry, “Museum of Science and Industry’s New Space Center Designed to Enhance South Side Community,” press release, April 27, 1984, p. 2
[17] Museum of Science and Industry, “Proposal for a SPACE CENTER at the Museum of Science and Industry,” October 18, 1983, p. 8
[18] Ibid
[19] Ibid
[20] Museum of Science and Industry, Institutional Archives, “Museum of Science and Industry’s New Space Center Designed to Enhance South Side Community,” press release, dated April 27, 1984, p. 2
[21] “Ground Broken for Crown Space Center,” Progress, March-April, 1985, p. 3
[22] Ibid
[23] Ibid
[24] Ibid
[25] “Astronauts Celebrate 20th Anniversary,” Progress, January-February, 1989, p. 3
This is the only source cited for this paragraph.
[26] “N.A.S.A.,” of course, stands for the “National Aeronautics & Space Administration,” which is an agency of the United States federal government, while “E.S.A.” stands for “European Space Administration,” an organization backed by multiple European governments, and “A.S.I.” stands for “Agenzia Spaziale Italiana” (literally, “Agency Space Italian” but translated as “Italian Space Agency”).
[27] After Cassini moved to France to help build the Paris Observatory and become Louis XIV’s astrologer/astronomer in 1669, he adopted a French translation of his first and middle names, becoming “Jean-Dominique Cassini.” His breakthroughs in astronomy included the discovery of four of Saturn’s moons. He and his descendants served as directors of the Paris Observatory for four generations. His son was the Italian-French astronomer Jacques Cassini (1677-1756); his grandson was the French astronomer and cartographer César-François Cassini de Thury (1714-1784), who was the first director of an independent Paris Observatory after it broke off from the Royal Academy of Sciences; and his great-grandson was the French aristocrat-astronomer and cartographer Jean-Dominique, comte de Cassini (1748-1845).
[28] For Members Only,” Progress, Summer, 1989, p. 3
See also “Calendar,” Progress, Spring, 1989, p. 14 (back cover)
[29] Museum of Science and Industry, “Museum of Science and Industry’s New Space Center Designed to Enhance South Side Community,” Press Release, dated April 27, 1984, p. 1
[30] Museum of Science and Industry, “Morton Thiokol Makes $1-Million Gift,” press release, April 10, 1984, p. 2
[31] Museum of Science and Industry, “Proposal for a SPACE CENTER at the Museum of Science and Industry,” October 18, 1983, p. 9
[32] Museum of Science and Industry, “Proposal for a SPACE CENTER at the Museum of Science and Industry,” October 18, 1983, p. 9
Known today as the IMAX Corporation, it is both a manufacturing company and a service company. It manufactures IMAX cameras and projectors, produces films, develops IMAX film, and provides postproduction services.
[33] Pridmore, pages 137 and 138
[34] Pridmore, p. 137
[35] Ibid
[36] Pridmore, p. 138
[37] Ibid
In the Garden City 
31 thoughts on ““What is the Henry Crown Space Center?” by S.M. O’Connor”