Preparing For Launch: Space Shuttle Replica Could Soon Find a Home In St. Cloud

(KNSI) – When St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis delivers his State of the City address on Tuesday, there may be a mention of a potential new downtown fixture that’s out of this world.

Plans are in the works to move a model space shuttle from Cape Canaveral in Florida to a lot across from the Great River Children’s Museum on 7th Avenue South.

“It’d be a cool thing to have, especially by the children’s museum behind there. That’d be kind of a cool attraction. Felicity-John Pederson bought it and then ended up now having to move it. It’s got to go somewhere! NASA needs the space, I think.”

Pederson is a graduate of St. Cloud Apollo High School and is the founder of LVX Systems. Built to be a perfect scale replica of the Apollo program, at one time, it even had working bathrooms.

From the Atlantic Ocean to central Minnesota is a daunting relocation for something of any size. That’s especially true when the cargo in question is at least 60 feet tall. Kleis says the original plan was to go by water, but there are still problems with reentry, so to speak.

“Some of the thought was to bring it on a barge on the river, but it’s not navigable all the way to St. Cloud. You’d have to still get it on a truck for a little ways. They’re gonna just look at taking it apart and then putting it back together.”

The project was first mentioned by Governor Tim Walz with follow-up from state Senator Aric Putnam on social media. A rough design of the building that would house the shuttle has already been drawn up.

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