'Spaceship House' To Be Auctioned In Tennessee 

Take a closer look at this unusual, 35-year-old structure in Signal Mountain, Tenn.

Click here to see more photos of the Spaceship House. Courtesy of Crye-Leike Auction

From the looks of it, E.T. has come back to Earth and set up shop in Signal Mountain, Tenn. At least, that’s what one might think upon stumbling across the house designed like a spaceship at 1408 Palisades Road. Star Trek fans—or lovers of quirky architecture—now have a chance to buy the house at auction on Sunday.

Known as “The Spaceship House,” the building was the creation of Curtis King, who spent $250,000 to have it built for his son in 1973, according to Terry Posey, an auctioneer with Crye-Leike Auction of Cleveland, Tenn., who will be running Sunday’s auction.

Made of steel and concrete, the structure provides nearly 2,000 square feet of living space, including three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a bar and entertainment area. The rooms are round, just like the house itself, and are situated around a central point. The house includes the original fixtures. A retractable staircase serves as the entrance to the house, but it is broken and remains in the “down” position.

The Spaceship House changed hands a few times over the years. The current owner, a local man who once owned a furniture business and who is now a real estate investor, wishes to remain anonymous. He bought the property in the fall of 2007 for $165,000, but has never lived there. “Due to health issues, he’s liquidating all his local property and holdings with plans to relocate to Florida,” Mr. Posey writes in an email, adding that the owner wants to unload the property as soon as possible.

At the auction, there will be no minimum bid for the property and no reserve. “He trusts that the public will give him all that they are willing to give for it,” says Tony Young, another Crye-Leike auctioneer. The winning bidder must pay a non-refundable deposit of 20%.

Crye-Leike previously auctioned the house in March with a winning bid of $135,000 from an Ohio buyer who put down a 10% non-refundable deposit. That deal fell through.

The current auction has already drawn attention. Nearly 300 people came to an open house on Dec. 7, Mr. Young estimates. “We had some folks that expressed a serious interest,” he said, adding that some were just stopping by out of curiosity.

ARTICLE COURTESY OF THE CHATTANOOGA TIMES FREE PRESS- pictures courtesy of crye-leike auction

UPDATE: Signal Mountain resident James Faris placed a winning bid of $119,000 on thepaceship House at yesterday’s auction, Harris intends to rent the house out to visitors on weekends, the Press reports.

Two New Yorkers got hitched in zero gravity Saturday in the first publicized weightless wedding.

Noah Fulmor and Erin Finnegan said "I do" June 20 while floating in microgravity in an airplane converted for commercial weightless flights.

The vows took place in front of close family and friends aboard a modified Boeing 727-200 plane owned by the Zero Gravity Corp. The plane - which is filled with padded walls and floors for safety, and video cameras to record the experience -  took off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla. It made steep dives while airborne to give the bridal party eight full minutes of weightlessness spread out in increments of about 30 seconds each.

The couple paid $5,400 per person for themselves and 10 guests to take the ride. The ceremony was officiated by space tourist Richard Garriott, the son of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, who flew to the International Space Station last year in a $30 million deal brokered by the company Space Adventures.

"I am honored to be taking part in Erin and Noah's wedding," Garriott said. "I know firsthand the added thrill microgravity will play in their already joyous event. The excitement from these 'first ever microgravity nuptials' will not soon fade in the minds of all the members of the wedding party."

Saturday's weightless nuptials were not the first space-themed wedding. In 2003, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko got married from orbit while flying aboard the International Space Station.

But only Malenchenko was floating in weightlessness during the ceremony, which he participated in via video. His bride, Ekaterina, was at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. 


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