In 1976, the United States stood at the dawn of its third century since the American Revolution. To celebrate the milestone, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency buried a time capsule at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida — one it promised to open in 2026.
This January, Andrew Vardaoulis sat outside a coffee shop in Mount Holly. He opened a manila folder, spreading out documents all tagged with a single name: Project Futurespect.
“My mother attended an event at Kennedy Space Center in 1976,” Vardaoulis said. “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.”
Vardaoulis had been a private investigator in another life, before his current career as a mechanical engineer. His mother, Dana Lewis, had received a plastic card, about the size of a credit card.
“‘It's of historical value and serves as your claim check for artifacts stored by the U.S. EPA to be opened in the year 2026,’” Vardaoulis said, reading the card.
Vardaoulis grew up in Melbourne, Florida, just south of the Kennedy Space Center. It always existed in the backdrop of his childhood. He said when she showed him the card five years ago, it invoked nostalgia. Lewis didn’t remember what she’d sealed away in the time capsule, but Vardaoulis thought that the two of them would return to Florida in 2026 and find out together.
‘The bicentennial was massive’
Fifty years ago, Lewis had attended the Kennedy Space Center’s Third-Century America Exposition.
“I'm kind of surprised how low-key everything is now, but back then it was all over school,” Lewis said. “We were just bombarded with everything bicentennial.”
Even in retrospect, it’s tough to overstate the bicentennial fervor in 1976.
“The bicentennial was massive at that time,” said Emily Carney, a space historian who's taken a particular interest in ‘70s space history. “The Magic Kingdom had its own bicentennial parade with Mickey and friends dressed up as, you know, the founding fathers and all that stuff.”
She described the expo as a young Dana Lewis would have experienced it.
“There's a Saturn V rocket, which at the time was still a big draw, because (the Apollo lunar mission) had really ended less than four years earlier,” Carney said.
Then there were the domes. Fifteen white geodesic domes dotted the front of the Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building. Wide and low, they resembled what a future colony on Mars might look like.
In a June memo to President Ford, an event coordinator described the exhibits and activities inside each tent. Government departments and agencies attempted to dazzle the public with the latest technological advancements. The then-Department of Health, Education and Welfare offered free hypertension screenings. Others offered gimmicks more appealing to a 10-year-old Dana Lewis.
“I have a photo that was taken from a computer. Of course, it's long before computers, but it printed out my picture with symbols,” Lewis said. “So, up close, it just looks like a bunch of symbols, but as you pull it back, it's a picture of me.”
Some exhibits wouldn’t be out of place in a modern-day exposition — the Energy Research and Development Administration brought an electric vehicle and a solar-powered TV. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration put a 100-ton buoy that collected weather data on display.
Still, it was a time when concerns about the environment were different — widespread lead pollution, DDT killing birds and “global cooling” (the now-ironic-seeming climate change worry of the 1970s) were some of the major issues of the day.
In a year dotted with celebrations commemorating the United States’ 200th birthday, the Space Center’s Third-Century America Exposition sought to show attendees visions of what life over the next 100 years could be like.
“As a 10-year-old, I wouldn't have understood any of that,” Lewis said. “I was just hanging out with my friend at Kennedy Space Center, and I ended up with this card.”
Burying the future to celebrate the past
Lewis visited the exposition more than once during the summer of 1976. She remembers going back after someone had painted one of the largest American flags on the Vehicle Assembly Building. At 209 by 110 feet, Lewis said she could see the flag from the nearby beach.
Next door to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare’s tent was the Environmental Protection Agency. News clippings from the time show Project Futurespect participants receiving their laminated cards from agency staff after writing down their predictions about the future of the environment.
Lewis said she doesn't remember going to the EPA tent. It was only through Vardaoulis’ research that they learned what his mother had given in exchange for that card. The Orlando Sentinel claimed the EPA sealed “pollution samples” inside.
“Each participant will receive a claim check, which can be exchanged for his artifact or statement when the container is opened in 2026,” read one article in the Orlando Sentinel at the time.
WFAE filed a FOIA request on Feb. 16, requesting more information about Project Futurespect. The EPA said it would likely take until June to track down all the materials.
The Watchman, a newspaper out of Louisiana, reported that the time capsule was to be “opened and examined” every five years, but it’s unclear whether that ever happened.
“Now that I know what it is, I would love for my mother to get the prediction back, so that her holding on to this card this whole time ends up being worth it,” Vardaoulis said.
But for Lewis, the value of the card had nothing to do with whatever’s buried under the Kennedy Space Center. She was the youngest of four kids. To her, the card was special just because it was hers.
“There wasn't a whole lot left when it came down to me,” Lewis said. “It was like, ‘Hey, I ... 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.”
“What do you think it would mean to have the time capsule dug up and being able to redeem that card?” I asked.
“I don't know what to think,” Lewis said. “If it's my thoughts of what the future would be like as a 10-year-old, it would mean more to my kids to see something that maybe their mother had thought.”
The date on Lewis’ card is July 30, 1976. In two months, it will have been exactly 50 years since she sealed her predictions about what the environment would be like in 2026.
If you received a Project Futurespect card from the EPA, we want to hear from you. Send us a message.
