Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed Senate Bill 313 into law on Wednesday allowing the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs to distribute funds to a replica of the Saturn 1B rocket along I-65 on the northern edge of Limestone County.

“There was not one negative vote in the legislature. Everybody is very supportive of the rocket and the image that it casts on Alabama when people come across the Tennessee/Alabama line,” Senator Tom Butler, who sponsored the bill, said.

Limestone County Commission Chairman Collin Daly said he was glad Butler led the charge on the bill and he had many conversations with him leading up to the governor’s signing.

“What I’ve always said is that’s kind of the welcoming mat to Alabama and it’s been an iconic figure,” Daly said.

The bill recognizes that the rocket has stood since 1979 at the Ardmore Welcome Center in Elkmont on loan from NASA. At the end of January, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center said the rocket could pose a safety issue if left in place. The bill says if the rocket is beyond restoration and repair then funds can be designated to design, construct and install a replica or similar structure under the department’s Planning Program.

In January, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center estimated disassembly and reconstruction of the Saturn 1B itself would cost over $7 million “with no guarantees that the rocket would withstand the process.” Repairs would have to be done on site, the center said. That could take more than a year, and inevitably the rocket would deteriorate because it was not designed to withstand the elements.

Butler said there was money allocated by the state to fund ADECA for this purpose. Representative Andy Whitt said $2 million will help kickstart the efforts to repair or replace the rocket based on NASA’s recommendation going forward since it is ultimately not state property. The funding comes from HB125 which is a FY23 budget revision passed by the legislature and signed by the governor at the end of May that specifically mentions the repair/replacement of the rocket at the Ardmore Welcome Center.

A previous bill, SB237, allowed the Alabama State council on the Arts to accept public or private funds or services as well as use money appropriated by the legislature to the council to design a replica. That bill did not make it out of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in April. But, SB313 was introduced three weeks later. SB237 also proposed changes to the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act of 2017 but those were not included in SB313 which also changed the funding from the Council on the Arts to the Department of Economic and Community Affairs.

Butler explained the differences in the bills to The News Courier. He said SB313 was rewritten to focus solely on the rocket and remove the mention of the Memorial Preservation Act. He also said they believed ADECA was the best to handle contracting for the assessment of the rocket.

“We wanted one bill dealing with one subject and that was the rocket. So, I reintroduced it,” he said. “313 is the bill that is designed to bring attention to the Saturn 1B rocket at the Alabama/Tennessee line.”

Whitt also told The News Courier this was a win for not only Limestone County but the whole of Alabama.

“It shows that the state feels that it’s also just as important. its an image issue with the state. It’s a positive image for our state and one that we want to keep,” he said.

As for what happens now, that’s in the hands of ADECA and NASA next. If they decide to replace it with a replica, both Whitt and Daly said they’d like to see pieces of the original kept on site at the welcome center.

“That’s part of our history there and I just want to make sure that we could preserve some of the rocket,” he said. “Because it means so much to that area.”

Daly said the rocket shows a part of what Alabama is becoming in terms of the growth in the technology and space sectors from the industrial and farming community. He said the unanimous vote showed support from the whole state for the iconic rocket.

“I’ve told them the cool thing would be is to take the top part of it or something and incorporate it into the building,” Daly said.

The welcome center building itself is being redone by ALDOT and in a prior project letting list from February of this year a completion date of May 2024 was projected for the contract.