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Fifty years ago, for the bicentennial, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency buried a time capsule at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It promised to open the capsule in 2026. Zachary Turner from member station WFAE has more on the mysterious Project Futurespect and what might lie inside.
ZACHARY TURNER, BYLINE: Andrew Vardaoulis opens a manila folder, spreading out documents all tagged with a single name, Project Futurespect.
ANDREW VARDAOULIS: My mother attended an event at Kennedy Space Center in 1976, and while she was there, she visited a geodesic dome controlled by the EPA and received a card that she's held onto for the last 50 years.
TURNER: Vardaoulis lives near Charlotte, North Carolina, about two hours from his mother, Dana Lewis, who's in Raleigh. The Environmental Protection Agency gave her the card in exchange for writing a prediction about what the environment would be like in 50 years.
DANA LEWIS: It says Project Futurespect, 1976 to 2026, important. And there's an exclamation point. Save this card. I do what I'm told, obviously.
TURNER: In 1976, Lewis went to the Kennedy Space Center's Third-Century America Expo in Florida. Fifteen white domed tents dotted the grounds of the Kennedy Space Center, built to show visions of futuristic lifestyles during the next century. Inside the domes, government departments and agencies attempted to dazzle the public with the latest technological advancements, like text art.
LEWIS: I do remember I have a photo that was taken from a computer. It printed out my picture with symbols. And so up close, it just looks like a bunch of symbols but as you pull it back, it's a picture of me.
TURNER: These government agencies wanted to capture the public's imagination. And it was a time when concerns about the environment were different. Widespread lead pollution, DDT killing birds and global cooling were some of the major issues of the day. Vardaoulis dug up old articles from the time that described Project Futurespect.
VARDAOULIS: What's actually included in this time capsule, which actually ends up being just a big metal barrel with spray-painted Project Futurespect on the front, is items related to the environment at the time - soil samples or pollution samples from 1976. But also, each of the participants who got an artifact number card got to write their own predictions for the future.
TURNER: His mother says she doesn't remember writing anything. It was only through Vardaoulis' research that they learned what his mother had given in exchange for that card.
VARDAOULIS: I would love for my mother to get the prediction back - what she wrote 50 years ago - so that her holding onto this card this whole time ends up being worth it.
TURNER: But for Lewis, the value of the card had nothing to do with whatever's buried under the Kennedy Space Center.
LEWIS: I was 1 of 4 kids, and I was the youngest. So there wasn't a whole lot left when it came down to me (laughter). You know what I mean? So it was like, hey, I got something special that's just mine, and I'm holding onto this. And I really did. For 50 years, I held onto that thing.
TURNER: It's not clear whether the EPA will dig up the time capsule this year. The agency declined to comment on any plans.
For NPR News, I'm Zachary Turner in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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