Not Just Child’s Play: Space Force Technicians Assist Children’s Museum with Restoration Project

Official Statements

• Space Launch Delta 30, November 10: “VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. — After painstaking restoration, a museum’s interactive recycling display recently whirred back to life thanks to the technicians of the 30th Operations Support Squadron’s Training Device Design and Engineering Center at Vandenberg Space Force Base. TDDEC personnel completed the project on Sept. 21, 2026 after repairing intricate motorized features and their remote activation devices on behalf of the Children’s Resource & Referral Discovery Museum in Santa Maria.”

• Space Launch Delta 30, November 10: “Now fully operational, the interactive recycling exhibit features four question-and-answer signs and three clear cylinders filled with recyclable materials. Children can interact with infrared wands that animate the displays and trigger voice messages about recycling when aimed at particular parts of the exhibit, engaging multiple senses and teaching hand-eye coordination. Joaquin Tinker, 30th Oss TDDEC director, proactively coordinated the repair effort with his team.”

• Space Launch Delta 30, November 10: “The TDDEC became part of the program when we were commissioned to transform a dilapidated youth bed into a children’s attraction representing the Discovery space shuttle,” said Tinker. “From there, as funding became available, TDDEC designed and fabricated the physical portion of what is now the Vandenberg Launch Experience located inside the CRR Discovery Museum.”

• Space Launch Delta 30, November 10: “After a period of closure resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum reopened and restoration efforts continued. “Once it reopened, the new chief operating officer, Jacquilyn Banta reached out for our help to reopen and reinvigorate the Launch Experience and other displays which had fallen into disrepair,” said Tinker. The post-pandemic repairs relied heavily on Vandenberg’s TDDEC experts. One of these essential repairs was the recycling device exhibit. The repair effort of this exhibit was handled by Joel “Joe” Sutterfield, a 30th Oss TDDEC technician.”

• Space Launch Delta 30, November 10: “After our team brought the assembly to the TDDEC, Mr. Sutterfield gave it a thorough inspection and created a list of the items required to restore it, which were minimal,” said Tinker. “In an effort to save the museum further expenditures, Mr. Sutterfield offered to make the repairs in-house.”

• Space Launch Delta 30, November 10: “Because Sutterfield was able to repair the exhibit at the TDDEC, he alleviated the need for the museum to outsource for the project, saving the museum an estimated $5,200 - adding to TDDEC’s tradition of collaboration on previous exhibits such as the Astronaut, Vandenberg Launch Experience, and Discovery Space Shuttle displays - culminating in a certificate of appreciation from the CRR Discovery Museum in Santa Maria. Sutterfield chimed in on his experience with the project.”

• Space Launch Delta 30, November 10: “I had to reverse-engineer what the original components were and how they operated,” said Sutterfield. “There was also damage to the internal electronics and speakers. I repaired the circuitry and built infrared emitters from scratch to trigger the sensors.” For Sutterfield, working at the TDDEC is the reward.”

• Space Launch Delta 30, November 10: “Working at the TDDEC is the most rewarding job I have ever had,” said Sutterfield. “The team is so collaborative and talented that you learn something new every day, and we work together so well that no project or problem ever feels insurmountable.”

• Space Launch Delta 30, November 10: “Vandenberg Space Force Base personnel have been supporting the CRR Discovery Museum since 2015 under the provisions of an Educational Partnership Agreement (EPA) which encourages use of base resources to support STEM education in communities around the base. Jacquilyn Banta, Children's Resource & Referral of Santa Barbara County chief operating officer, worked closely in coordinating support for the museum’s restoration.”

• Space Launch Delta 30, November 10: "The Educational Partnership Agreement between Vandenberg and this museum is one of the longest-standing and most hands-on partnerships we have,” said Banta. “It began with a worn-out youth bed that the TDDEC transformed into the Discovery Space Shuttle, grew into the Vandenberg Launch Experience, carried us through our reopening after COVID, and now reaches nearly every exhibit a child can touch. Vandenberg did not write a check and walk away. They sculpted and 3D-printed new fingers for our astronaut, repainted and rewired our shuttle, and kept coming back."

• Space Launch Delta 30, November 10: “Through the EPA, Vandenberg and the museum have built a lasting collaboration focused on hands-on education, with the latest restoration reflecting the continued impact of the agreement on the museum’s exhibits and the children who experience them.”

• Space Launch Delta 30, November 10: "Joe Sutterfield took an exhibit built by another company, with no drawings and no documentation, and treated it the way his team treats launch training equipment,” said Banta. “He took it apart, understood it, and brought it back to life. Now a child presses the button, the motors turn, and that child has no idea the same hands keep Vandenberg's training simulators ready. That level of care cannot be purchased."

• Space Launch Delta 30, November 10: “Drawing on the same technical expertise used to maintain Vandenberg’s launch training equipment, Sutterfield restored a piece of machinery that now gives visitors a hands-on introduction to engineering and technology. “The certificate says what 35,000 visitors a year cannot say for themselves,” said Banta. “The TDDEC gave this community a working, beautiful museum, and the children and families of the Central Coast are better for it."

• Space Launch Delta 30, November 10: “The recognition reflects the broader impact of the team’s craftsmanship and dedication to the community. By helping make science and technology accessible to local families, TDDEC technicians and model makers are building connections between Vandenberg Space Force Base and the next generation. "Vandenberg's investment in this museum is an investment in its own future workforce,” said Banta. “Every restored exhibit is one more reason for a child to come back, keep asking questions, and one day apply for a job on base."