Ribbon Cutting for 50 Year-Old Newly Restored Ranger Spacecraft

A Space #flashbackfriday

WHAT: Ribbon Cutting of the Ranger Spacecraft

The California Science Center is presenting Space Fest, a free, three-day festival from Oct. 30 – Nov.1 featuring NASA exhibits, displays and fun demonstrations honoring aeronautics and space explorations past, present and future. A highlight of Space Fest will be a ribbon cutting and a special preview of a 50 year-old Ranger spacecraft that was shuttered in storage crates at the Smithsonian, but has now been fully restored by a small team of volunteers at the Science Center who were guided by two retired JPL engineers that actually worked on the Ranger. The small team, which ranged in age from 18 – 80, sorted through 15 crates containing 744 spare parts and reassembled the spacecraft with hardly any drawings or instructions in only eight months.

Who: California Science Center

California Science Center President Jeffrey N. Rudolph

The team of Science Center staff and volunteers which figured out how to put the Ranger and put it together.

Visual Opportunities

Ribbon-cutting moment with Rudolph and volunteers
The restored Ranger on public view for the first time
Hashtags are #flashbackfriday and #buildranger
WHEN: Friday, October 30, 2015

Media check-in opens at 12:15 pm
Photo opportunity begins at 1:45 pm

WHERE: California Science Center, 700 Exposition Park Drive,
Los Angeles, CA 90037

Enter visitor parking at Figueroa & 39th/Exposition Park Drive
*Please show press credential or business card for complimentary parking

CONTACT: Shell Amega, Vice President
Communications California Science Center Foundation
(213) 744-7496 or samega@cscmail.org