www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/12 -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 2/1/2008
Last Visited: 2/1/2008
Capps then presented commemorative Saturn V scale-model rockets to those who spearheaded the rocket restoration including Aldrin, Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks, SAIC Senior Vice President Bill Gurley and Dorothy and Julian Davidson, who donated more than $2 million to build the facility that houses the test rocket.
...
Gurley helped spearhead collection of corporate donations and planning for the restoration.
"We have come here tonight to celebrate our past accomplishments, recognize those who dedicated themselves to achieving lofty ambitions of mankind's earliest successes in space and to get a feeling for the magnitude of complexity of these undertakings and the excellence with which they were achieved at a time during the Cold War, when the price of failure would have been too grim to bear," Gurley told the crowd.
The Jan. 31, 1958, Explorer I launch paved the way for NASA to be not only created, but also for the space agency to place Neil Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon more than 11 years later, Gurley said, and "led ultimately to a $46 billion investment in the space race to the moon that would involve over 400,000 employees of over 20,000 companies across the nation."