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For all these years, they've been poking into the sky, as startling and as recognizable as any landmark in Queens.
The Titan II-Gemini.
The Saturn V-Boattail.
The Atlas-Mercury.
Fried in the warm months, frozen in the cold - rained on and blown at year 'round. Whatever punishment the elements could deliver, these three aging rockets have simply endured.
And yes, after all that time outside the New York Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, they've definitely been showing their age.
The paint is peeling. The metal is rusting away. The guy wires don't look so taut anymore. And the vandals have shown up more than once.
But yesterday, as an old man named Glenn was given a remarkable second chance, there was hopeful news in Queens: These ragged remnants of the Space Age will soon be getting theirs.
"We have half-a-million dollars from the Queens borough president, Claire Shulman," Alan Friedman, who runs the interactive science museum, was saying yesterday.
"We have half-a-million from the mayor. On our own, we have to raise another $300,000. But everyone in New York knows these rockets. And we're going to have them back in good condition very soon."