Name Plate, Delmarva Space Training Center, Ken Beatty

This nameplate was used by Ken Beatty, the founder of the National Aerospace Cadets (NAC), an aerospace education organization, for his desk at the Delmarva Space Training Center, an educational center for the NAC located in the basement of his home. Beatty organized the nonprofit NAC in 1980 to prepare boys and girls to live in the space age, with lessons in areas such as astronomy, computers, electronics, model rocketry, and celestial navigation. Beatty's dream, never realized, was to create a permanent home for the Delmarva Space Training Center and the NAC.

Beatty's use of the NASA logo on NAC materials was not authorized by NASA but illustrated his strong support for the space agency and his hope that his cadets would be well prepared to work for NASA someday. Beatty donated the nameplate to the Smithsonian Institution's National Collection in 2008.