The state legislator whose district includes the Alabama rest stop where the deteriorating NASA rocket stands is promising to fight its possible removal.

Rep. Andy Whitt, R-Huntsville, posted on social media Thursday night that removing the Saturn 1B rocket at that Alabama welcome center rest stop on Interstate 65 “would be similar to removing the USS Alabama from Mobile Bay.”

Related: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center supports removing rest stop rocket

The rocket’s uncertain future has received little support for remaining in place. Marshall Space Flight Center this week said in a statement that it supported removing the rocket from the rest stop, saying that it could be a safety hazard and that “the damage is too significant to repair.” And last week, state Tourism Director Lee Sentell was adamant that the rocket needed to be dismantled for similar reasons.

The rest stop is currently closed while undergoing a renovation by the Alabama Department of Transportation.

“To permanently remove the rocket from North Alabama would be similar to removing the USS Alabama from Mobile Bay,” Whitt posted on Facebook. “This is our state’s welcome mat. We will find common ground and a path forward to ensure a rocket will continue to grace our skyline. I can assure you that conversations are being had at all levels of government and positive work is being done. I will ‘fight the fight.’ Whether providing shade on our family picnics to now a travel beacon when returning home from Montgomery, we will continue to honor our historic achievements.”

He also posted a similar message on Twitter.

Whitt did not immediately respond Friday morning to a request for comment about the rocket.

The rocket, developed at Huntsville’s Marshall Space Flight Center, stands at 168 feet and has been in place at the rest stop since about 1979. It is smaller than the Saturn V rocket, which carried men to the moon in the Apollo program, that stands at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville.

Sentell, the first director of the rocket center, said there have been complaints about the rocket’s condition for years.

“It’s time for it to go,” Sentell told AL.com last week. “That was never intended to be anywhere that long.”

Sentell estimated it would cost at least $1 million to refurbish the rest stop rocket. In 2018, the rocket center gave the Saturn V a state-of-the-art paint job for about $1.3 million. The rocket center, a not-for-profit museum, solicited donations to help pay for the project.

AL.com reporter Greg Garrison contributed to this report.