36 MAY/JUNE 2017 SPORT ROCKETRY
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an Estes Astron Scout hand built by Vern
and Gleda Estes, and carried by Jay on
STS-37, his first of four eventual shuttle
flights. The Scout is backed by the Nation-
al Association of Rocketry Championship
Banner, which also accompanied Jay into
orbit. The title of the new exhibit, Inspir-
ing Rockets, evokes the formative influ-
ence of rocketry in the lives of Jay Apt and
other astronauts to-be. It is an experience
that has lit a spark not just in astronauts,
but also in aerospace engineers, scientists,
and in museum curators like me.
The exhibit is part of a growing part-
nership between The Museum of Flight
and the National Association of Rocketry,
which has been years in the making. Dis-
cussions on the topic began as far back as
1998 when museum volunteer Pat Fitz-
patrick began talking with G. Harry Stine's
son Bill about finding a home for his fa-
ther's collection. At the time, Bill Stine was
considering the possibility of building a
stand-alone museum dedicated to model
rocketry. Almost a decade later, in 2007,
Pat and representatives from The Museum
of Flight worked with Bill to include a se-
lection of his father's artifacts in the exhibit
Space: Exploring the New Frontier.
In 2011, discussions expanded from
Bill's efforts to find a home for his father's
collection to the broader subject of tell-
ing the story of model rocketry through
a partnership between the NAR and The
Museum of Flight. Trip Barber, then NAR
president, and Vern Estes joined the con-
versation as the outlines of a more official
partnership began to come together. The
Museum of Flight and the National Asso-
ciation of Rocketry formalized their agree-
ment in 2012 with a memorandum of un-
derstanding.
With the framework in place, several
