Dr. Kimberly Robinson would be the next director, starting February 15, 2021. Buildings Huntsville architect David Crowe designed the initial building with of exhibit space. Since 1969, Huntsville residents could point to the vertical Saturn I rocket at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center as a distant landmark (located a few miles from the city center). In 1999, a full-scale model of the Saturn V rocket was erected, standing nearly twice as tall as the Saturn I. Since 1979, a surplus Saturn IB rocket example owned by the museum stands at the Alabama Welcome Center in Ardmore "as a reminder to visitors of Alabama's role in the space program." The dome theater addition opened December 19, 1982, and was replaced in early 2019 by the INTUITIVE Planetarium. The 1986 film SpaceCamp promoted the camp and inspired more than a doubling of camp attendees (from 5,000 in 1986 to 11,000 in 1987), and the facilities had to be expanded again. A $3 million NASA Educator Resource Center was built during Larry Capps's tenure, opening mid-2005. The newest addition to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center is the Davidson Center for Space Exploration, named after Dr. Julian Davidson, founder of Davidson Technologies. The building opened January 31, 2008. The Davidson Center was designed to house the Saturn V Dynamic Test Vehicle (listed on the National Register of Historic Places) and many other space exploration exhibits. The vehicle is elevated above the floor surface with separated stages and engines exposed, so visitors have the opportunity to walk underneath the rocket. The Davidson Center also features a 3D movie theater in addition to the planetarium in the original museum. Governance The U.S. Space & Rocket Center is owned by the State of Alabama and operated by the Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission (ASSEC), whose 18 members are appointed by the Governor for terms of four or eight years. The composition and authority of the board are set forth in Title 41, Article 15 of the Code of Alabama. ASSEC meetings are open to the public. The U.S. Space & Rocket Center Foundation is a nonprofit organization that raises funds for the ASSEC. Visitors The Space & Rocket Center saw 540,153 visitors in 2010 and 553,137 in 2011, and over 584,000 in 2013, the latter earning the museum recognition as the top paid-tourist attraction in Alabama. In 2017, more than 786,820 people visited the center,