New Hampshire has a storied tradition of looking to the stars. Alan Shepard of East Derry became the first American in space when he piloted the Freedom 7 on May 5, 1961. The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord honors Shepard and beloved teacher-astronaut, Christa McAuliffe with an observatory, interactive activities and displays — including the 92-foot model of Shepard’s rocket, visible from I-93. “What’s that big pointy thing?” folks ask as they drive through. Looks like a rocket.

That’s because it is!

Sixty-five miles north in Warren, smack in the middle of the town square, sits a Redstone missile, which also looks a lot like a rocket. Because it is! Nicknamed Old Reliable, a Redstone missile boosted Alan Shepard’s capsule 116 miles up, up and up for his fifteen-minute ride of fame.

Ted Asselin, with the towns blessing, transported the retired Redstone to town in 1971, all the way from a field in Alabama. It was a long trip on a flatbed hauled by a semi. In a brochure called, “Why Here in Warren?”, Asselin wrote: It should be noted that the welcoming committee in Warren had a false start. When informed that the Redstone was approaching Wentworth, they jumped into vehicles, and racing south they soon discovered that the Redstone sighting was a local septic tank pumper! I knew at that point that I had indeed been correct in bringing America’s space program a little closer to Warren.

New Hampshire has long been fascinated by space and objects in the night sky, including UFOs. Many UFO sightings and encounters have been described over the years, mostly famously the abduction of Betty and Barney Hill in 1961 near Groveton, which inspired several books and a made-for-television movie. After luring the Hills from their stalled vehicle, the aliens purportedly transported them to their ship, examined them and then returned them to the car. Betty and Barney drove home to Portsmouth, having misplaced a few hours. They never got over it.

In 2000, a group of UFOlogists along with Betty Hill herself, returned to the scene of the abduction for a look-see. The gang was standing beside the road where the UFO had landed when a local in a pickup pulled over and called out, “Did ya see a moose?”

“Nope,” the UFOlogists replied, “Looking for UFOs.”

“Okay,” the local said, and drove on.