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Then-Mayor James Eason says site plans for a proposed $20 million museum are "in the final stages." The museum will be built along Rudd Lane.
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Archaeologists excavating at the site find remnants of an 18th century garden. At this point, the museum is referred to as the "Virginia Air and Space Center/Hampton Roads History Center."
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The city approves issuing up to $17 million in revenue bonds to help build the Virginia Air and Space Center/Hampton Roads History Center. Those bonds are expected to be repaid by ticket sales at the museum, but the city stands behind the debt if ticket sales are slower than expected.
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Local dignitaries break ground at the Virginia Air and Space Center/Hampton Roads History Center. The center's estimated cost is $22 million.
Mayor James L. Eason calls it the "biggest project in the city's history" and the "crown jewel of our downtown revitalization."
Construction is expected to take two years.
The ceremony includes a fighter jet flyover and speech by Gov. Gerald L. Baliles. -
The City Council buys the I. Cooper's warehouse on South King Street for $433,874.
The warehouse is the last piece of land the city needs to complete a waterfront park to house the restored Buckroe Beach carousel. -
Ralph T. Johnston, 35, is chosen as the center's first director after a nationwide search.
He had most recently been the deputy director of the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
He was chosen from a field of more than 60 applicants. -
Center administrators acknowledge construction delays have pushed the opening date from late 1991 to early 1992. Construction costs are now estimated at $22.5 million.
"It's a very complicated building," said director Ralph Johnston, at the time. "It has a lot of unusual shapes and unusual spaces." -
Mayor James L. Eason says construction costs are higher than expected, meaning some optional features may need to be cut from the project.
The city has $23 million budgeted for the project, including $15.7 million borrowed from bonds, $5 million in state funds and more than $2 million in private donations, -
City officials acknowledge another $3.3 million is needed for construction costs.
Shortfall is paid for by city bonds. -
Daily Press article sites $27.9 million price tag for Virginia Air and Space Center.
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Tallest portion of the center is completed.
City officials throw a catered party to celebrate the occasion.
The building still is empty with the exception of an F4E-Phantom 2 airplane, which already has taken its place so the building could be built around it. -
The price tag for the center is now estimated at $30 million, although the increase is not explained.
The facility is expected to house the Hampton Roads History Center, and is planned to draw about 400,000 visitors a year.
The city has borrowed $18 million for the project. -
The restored Buckroe carousel housed in a newly constructed pavilion opens to the public. The project cost $350,000.
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The space agency expects to provide about $300,000 in annual funding for the center's innovative aerospace math and science education programs.
It also loans the center artifacts such as the Apollo 12 command module, a model of the Viking spacecraft and a rock from the surface of the moon. -
Center opens its doors to the public.
More than 8,000 people turned out under sunny skies Sunday to see the new center and its collection of 100-plus history and aerospace exhibits. -
Astronaut Charles ``Pete'' Conrad, who has four space flights to his credit, discusses space travel and future space transportation systems during a lecture commemorating the opening of the Virginia Air and Space Center and Hampton Roads History Center.
An IMAX theater uses a 50-foot-high screen and state-of-the-art sound system to present dramatic films of flight and space exploration. -
Ralph T. Johnston announces his resignation, just 31 days after the center opens. He cites personal reasons for his departure.
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The Virginia Air and Space Center invites area residents to celebrate International Space Year, an event that commemorates man's exploration of the earth and space, by viewing a new exhibit.
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Bay Days festival draws record crowd. VASC is seen as a large contributor to that attendance.
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The Virginia Air and Space Center hires former chief of the Langley Research Center as its new executive director.
Richard H. "Pete" Petersen, -
About 277,000 visited the museum in its first year. That includes 56,000 students.
Average daily attendance has been about 750, with more than 1,000 visitors a day in the summer months,
A 1990 budget draft called for a budget of $1.55 million. Officials said their actual budget this year, funded entirely with museum revenues and private donations, was $1.7 million. -
The city agrees to refinances a number of bonds to take advantage of lower interest rates. That includes the center's bonds, totaling $15.7 million, which were issued in 1989 and 1990.
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The world's largest flying paper airplane - which was created by Hampton students - is hung in the center.
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Richard H. "Pete" Petersen resigns under pressure following a budgetary dispute with the museum's executive committee.
He left his post after refusing to accept demands for additional reductions in a budget that had been cut about 8 percent in the past six months.
After drawing nearly 280,000 people in its first year - about 20 percent higher than projected - the downtown attraction saw visitations drop about 25 percent compared to the first six months after its opening. -
Four staff members cut because of declining attendance and revenue.
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The 1993-94 fiscal year ends with just 203,000 visitors to the center. Staff says 230,000 visitors were needed for the center to break even.
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Virginia Air and Space Center employees were asked to sign a petition in support of acting director Jeannette Petrolia. The petition included language endorsing Petrolia's candidacy for the position of executive director.
The previous director had been forced to resign in January. -
Kim L. Maher is named the center's third director.
She had most recently been the head of the Museum of Science and Discovery in Fort Lauderdale,
Board president Edwin C. Kilgore describes Maher as an aggressive, highly capable administrator. -
The center reports a 12-month loss of $97,157.
Attendance rose to 213,605 visitors, an increase of more than 5 percent over the previous year, while revenues grew 9 percent to about $2.43 million. -
The center the fiscal year a $150,000 budget surplus.
The downtown center drew 249,523 visitors which is 17 percent more than the previous year.
Revenues grew 23 percent to a total of $3,159,302 for the period.
This is the first year the center has drawn a profit -
The Virginia Air & Space Center ended its 1997 fiscal year posting its second consecutive annual budget surplus after two years of discouraging revenue shortfalls.
The museum achieved the surplus despite an estimated 9 percent dip in attendance and the absence of a big-name changing exhibit such as "Star Trek: Federation Science," the highly popular show that helped drive visitation to a record 249,523 last year. -
The center's figures for the 1998 fiscal year show a revenue increase of 16 percent compared to the previous year.
Attendance increased by 7 percent to 364,000 admissions. The center has an annual operating budget of $3.6 million. -
"Special Effects," the Academy Award-nominated documentary short subject, debuts on the IMAX screen.
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The Air & Space Center ends the 1999 fiscal year with an 11 percent gain in revenue and more than 385,000 admissions.
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The Virginia Air and Space Center recently installed a new closed captioning system in its IMAX theater, making it the only big-screen theater in the state to offer such a specialized viewing format. Just five other IMAX theaters in the country extend similar services to the deaf and hearing impaired.
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Kim L. Maher leaves as executive director to become president of the Orlando Science Center.
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AeroZone aeronautics lab opens in center. The $276,000 lab is considered one of the museum's most important additions since the center's opening.
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The city issues a series of bonds, $475,000 of which are earmarked for the Virginia Air and Space Museum.
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VASC shows Super Bowl on IMAX screen
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Todd C. Bridgford, who has served as the museum's interim director since July, assumes the post immediately.
He is chosen among a list of several hundred other applicants and a roster of five finalists for the director's position.
The museum plans to raise an estimated $7 million - including about $2 million from the private sector - for a massive new aviation exhibit. -
From July 2000 through June 2001, it had more than 407,000 visitors.
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Since July, the museum secured nearly $4 million, including $1.74 million in a recent appropriation from the federal government. The plan includes $1.65 million in city money.
$6.9 million will go to new exhibits on the origins of flight, aviation and the Air Force.
$1 million will be spent updating the museum's existing series of space-exploration exhibits.
$1 million will be used for the museum's endowment fund. -
Hampton City Council agrees to $1.6 million request from VASC for upgrades.
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VASC celebrate its 10th anniversary with a gala featuring guest musician Robin Welch and former astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
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Riverside Health Systems donates $100,000 for the next 10 years. The money will be directed toward the center's capital campaign.
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A retiring DC-9 jetliner arrives at Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport. Sections of the plane will be displayed in the center's Aviation Exhibit Hall.
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The 18,000-square-foot Hampton History Center opens meaning the VASC no longer displays Hampton's general history.
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Gallery costs $6.4 million to build.
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The new traveling exhibit incorporates circus themes to explain physics.
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Temporary exhibits runs through January 1. Robotics exhibit shows where people and robots strengths and weaknesses lie.
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Lockheed Martin Corp. pledges support for the center's new Adventures in Flight gallery and upcoming Space gallery opening in 2007.
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VASC receives $1 million for a space exhibit scheduled to be open in 2007.
The $7.8 million project will renovate the entire second floor of the museum to update space exhibits.
Already, the center has raised more than $2.7 million for the new gallery and the construction of a new digital "Discovery Lab." -
In fiscal year 2005, which ended June 30, it sold 456,000 general admission and IMAX theater tickets -- an increase of 8 percent. It also logged a 10 percent increase in its student admissions,
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Money is designated for the proposed $8 million Space gallery. A total of $5.6 million has been raised to date.
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Michael Griffin speaks about retooling NASA with a long-term vision for exploration of Mars and space
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The 5,000-square-foot rink is the first outdoor rink in Hampton.
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The Air & Space Center has a budget of just more than $5 million, with money coming from subsidies, admissions, philanthropy and a museum store.
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Exhibit had been planned for three years, costs $8.7 million.
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The center runs a $915,027 deficit during the 2008 fiscal year, which ends this day. A contract with NASA is $1.2 million less than in the previous year.
This is the first deficit since 1996. -
VASC marks the event with a series of lectures throughout the month
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The entire project costs $3.1 million, of which $1.5 million is for the gull-wing section.
Administrators are forced to move the center's ice skating rink while repairs are underway. -
Organizers said about 1,200 people attended the party, which was described as the first local edition of a global celebration of space exploration. On April 12, 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel in space.
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Auditors point out that the VASC has run a deficit for its second straight year. That deficit now totals $2.1 million, including debt owed on capital project costs.
Auditor questions the center's ability to raise additional revenues to balance the books. -
VASC is still operating with a deficit, although several cost saving measures have been implemented, according to an auditor's report.
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Todd Bridgford wants the city to consider reinvesting that $25,000, along with an additional $25,000, to help the air and space center replace the seating in its IMAX theater. The theater is currently undergoing an upgrade to show digital IMAX films
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An auditor states in its cover letter to the board of directors that the organization's finances are a "concern."
"These conditions raise substantial doubt about the Organization's ability to continue as a going concern," auditors wrote. -
Numerous economic troubles were revealed after executive director Todd Bridgford retires.
An audit of the facility shows its board is struggling to pay a $2 million SunTrust loan,
Revenue and attendance had dropped in the previous year.
Attendance dips to less than 350,000 after years above 400,000. -
Orion test craft was moved from the NASA Langley Research Center to the Virginia Air and Space Center
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Auditors note that a $3.3 million deficit and $2.1 million loan the center has defaulted on are ongoing concern.
"The Organization has made substantial adjustments to operations to mitigate operating shortfalls." -
VASC remains open past midnight so NASA buffs can watch the historic landing of the Mars science rover live.
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City-appointed interim director Brian DeProfio is still operating the center. It has been more than a year since Bridgford retired.