HUNTSVILLE, AL – At 7:30 a.m., Heather Finley and her son, 10-year-old son Grayson Finley, waited outside the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. The Finleys, from Bentonville, Ark., drove 10 hours to see “Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination.”

“We planned our whole vacation around the opening of the ‘Star Wars’ exhibition,” Finley said. “We are really big ‘Star Wars’ fans.”

Following a year of planning and a month-long installation process, the space center opened the much-anticipated “Star Wars” exhibit on Friday morning. The countdown sign facing Interstate 565 reads “Now Open.”

The 12,000-square-foot exhibit, which came from the Boston Museum of Science, features costumes, props and interactive displays from the George Lucas film saga. Included in the exhibit are X-Wing Fighter models, a life-sized Chewbacca outfit, an arsenal of blasters and a podracer from “Episode I: The Phantom Menace.”

Before the doors opened on Friday morning, about 150 people, some clad in “Star Wars” T-shirts, waited outside the exhibit. The space center has issued tickets allowing people to enter at certain times to control the flow of people. Groups are allowed in every 30 minutes, but can stay as long as they want.

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http://blog.al.com/entertainment-times/2010/06/a_year_in_the_making_star_wars.html