Historic launch console lights up space museum for holidays

U.S. Space Walk of Fame Museum volunteer Keith Sowell points out 
a display on the Model IV Sequencer in the console room
at the Downtown Titusville, Florida, museum. 

Hardware responsible for launches from the Cape until 1988 provided a holiday light show last month at the U.S. Space Walk of Fame Museum in Titusville.

A Model IV Sequencer, a tall cabinet of wires, controls and readouts, was one of four models used in more than 20 blockhouses to support hundreds of missile launches on the Space Coast.

More than 20 years after its final launch, the Model IV Sequencer was found in Blockhouse 16 and donated to the museum. It was refurbished and now controls simulated launch countdowns in the museum's console room.

In the room lined with actual launch consoles, lights blink and flash from displays, buttons and switches as the older sequencer controls the countdown of a simulated launch many times day. 

"It excites the kids and the families love it," said Keith Sowell, an aircraft and avionics technician who volunteers at the museum. 

"During Christmas, we shut the lights off in here and the whole place looked lit up like a Christmas tree."