there will be more on this later, but the countdown is on.
"Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist and author, will be the guest speaker. He is director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, but is perhaps best-known as the enthusiastic host of PBS' series "NOVA scienceNOW."
Over the next week a series of talks, museum and TV programs and other special events will showcase the Tennessee Valley's indispensable role in the U.S. space program and will bring other stellar guests to the Rocket City.
The countdown will culminate on the evening of Jan. 31 with a gala dinner, awards ceremony and grand opening of the imposing Davidson Center for Space Exploration at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.
But legendary CBS newsman and space fan Walter Cronkite, who was to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the gala, may not be able to attend, according to Space Center CEO Larry Capps.
"We received word that Mr. Cronkite is ailing and his doctors are advising him against travel," Capps said Monday afternoon.
There is still hope that the 91-year-old Cronkite can attend, "but it doesn't look likely," Capps said.
The Space Center is contacting some of Cronkite's colleagues in broadcasting about the possibility of attending to accept the award on his behalf.
All the special events and the gala are to mark the 50th anniversary of the launch and orbiting of America's first satellite, Explorer I, on Jan. 31, 1958. The 30-pound package of scientific experiments rode into space atop an Army Jupiter-C rocket, designed and managed at Redstone Arsenal by Dr. Wernher von Braun and his team.
Later, after the creation of NASA and Marshall Space Flight Center, that team and many other engineers worked in North Alabama to design and develop the Saturn V rocket, which carried the Apollo astronauts on their odyssey to the lunar surface.
The Davidson Center is the new home for the museum's restored Saturn V, and more than 1,400 guests will dine beneath the giant engines and stages of the moon rocket.
"It's going to be ready," Capps said. "It's just absolutely outstanding."
John Hendricks, a Huntsville native and founder of the Discovery Channel, is chairman for the 50th anniversary event. Guests will include moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, Scott Carpenter, one of America's original seven Mercury astronauts, and many other astronauts, NASA officials and space celebrities.
Carpenter, astronauts Charlie Duke and Tom Stafford, Huntsville's own "Rocket Boys" author Homer Hickam, former members of Von Braun's team and others will also be involved in three panel discussions open to the public for free earlier in the day at the Von Braun Center Concert Hall."
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