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Longtime Astroland owners Carol and Jerry Albert, who sold most of their land to New York-based developer Thor Equities last year, donated the rocket to the nonprofit Coney Island History Project and have offered to contribute toward the estimated $15,000 cost for moving the landmark from the top of a building—money the nonprofit doesn't have.

People from car-wash owners to museum curators have contacted the Coney Island History Project about the Astroland Moon Rocket, including an amusement park in Pakistan.

"We were kind of wowed by their interest," said the history project's administrative director Tricia Vita in an e-mail. "Our dream placement for the rocket would be in a nonprofit setting where [it] would be preserved and could also be used for educational purposes."

Neither the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Children's Museum, the New York Hall of Science, nor Floyd Bennet Field in Brooklyn was able to provide a new home for the rocket due to lack of space or logistics, she said.

Charles Denson, director of the Coney Island History Project says his group is currently in "serious negotiations" with a group that will move the rocket to a new Coney location. "It looks like it [might] be staying. It's a survivor, and it'll keep the Astroland name alive. It's a time capsule; everything inside is absolutely preserved."

If the rocket is not moved by Jan. 31, it will become the property of Thor Equities, which now owns most of Coney Island.

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