Canada aviation museum now adding space!

The Canada Aviation Museum will be doing more than earth-bound aviation. It is adding space exploration exhibits. In fact, the museum will be changing its name to the Canada Aviation and Space Museum.

This is all part of an expansion—which will include adding a 300 seat theatre—and an agreement with the Canada Space Agency. The expansion is scheduled for completion in February 2011.

Next week, however, the name change becomes official and a new mini-exhibit on Canadian astronauts will open.

A place about space and museums where you can LEARN, DISCUSS and SHARE

Museum visitors and space fans! Welcome to Museum of Space Travel, where you can:

LEARN

• about museums, spacecraft and space history.

DISCUSS

• individual museums and their exhibits with your comments and ratings.
• topics related to museums and space in our forums (coming soon).

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• your experiences, stories and photos related to space and museum exhibits by emailing us…for possible publication.

Show off YOUR museums at Museum of Space Travel

We’re the guide to museums with exhibits about space exploration. If you are one of them, you need to be here. Actively.

You can update and maintain your own page—providing timely and exciting information to your customers (and potential customers). It’s free and all you need to get started is email us.

It’s easy to do…like using a word processor. But we know you’re busy. If you don’t have the time, just email us info and pictures (space-related only!) of events, exhibits and artifacts. We’ll do the rest.

We’re here to complement your website, and grow the audience of people interested in space and space exhibits at museums like yours. Work with us.

1957: To counter fears of Sputnik, the U.S. Army put a Redstone missile on display in NYC's Grand Central Station

When the Soviets launched Sputnik and took hold of the “high frontier” in 1957…Americans were worried. We were unable to match that feat until more than a year later. And by then, the Russians had engaged in more amazing space accomplishments.

To counter fears, the U.S. Army put a Redstone missile into Grand Central Station. Reports say that the missile was too tall, and that a hole was cut in the station’s ceiling to make the missile fit. But the pictures show the ceiling far above the standing missile. I don’t know what to make of that.

In any case, the U.S. did eventually use the (suborbital) missile for spaceflight—launching Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom into space aboard Mercury/Redstone vehicles in 1961.

Today, you can see Redstone missiles at a number of locations, including the California Science Center and Kennedy Space Center.

The second half of the newsreel below tells the story of the Redstone in Grand Central Station.

Adler Planetarium: excellent artifacts about James Lovell

This venue in Chicago houses Lovell and Aldrin’s Gemini XII spacecraft, along with many of Jim Lovell’s personal effects, including his rejection letter from the Mercury program, and his flown flight plan from Gemini XII. The permanent exhibit, A Journey with Jim Lovell, opened November 11, 2006 and features a multimedia presentation about the Gemini XII flight narrated by Lovell.

Location of Adler Planetarium:

Air Force Space & Missile Museum in Florida

Perhaps the most impressive space-related artifact here is the original Gemini “white room”, where astronauts suited up and made final preparations for their flights. Also, on the grounds of the museum, is launch complex 5/6, from which Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom made the first two manned Mercury flights.

To visit the museum, you go to the Kennedy Space Center and take the bus tour, “Cape Canaveral: Then and Now.”

Their website suggests — “For Air Force Space and Missile Museum Information: please call the Museum Director at 321-853-9171″. So, if I’ve left you confused here (for example, how is this museum separate from the Kennedy Space Center?), you might want to call.

Armstong Air & Space in Ohio

Located in Armstrong’s home town of Wapakoneta, OH, this museum has the original flown Gemini 8 spacecraft—in which Armstrong and Dave Scott performed the first American docking in space—and nearly died when they went into a wicked spin. Also on display: the plane in which Armstrong learned to fly; Armstrong’s backup spacesuit for Apollo 11; a Gemini spacesuit fitted for Armstrong; an Apollo 11 moon rock; and a space shuttle landing simulator.

Location:  500 Apollo Drive, Wapakoneta, OH 45895-9780
Phone: (419) 738-8811

Tommy Bartlett's Exploratory

It’s amazing that this venue in Wisconsin displays a 43 foot long core module of the Mir space station—the actual backup for the Russian space station that hosted Russian and American crews in the 1990s.

Address: 560 Wisconsin Dells Parkway, Wisconsin Dells, WI 53965

Phone 608-254-2525

The Comsosphere: possibly the best space collection outside of NASA or the Smithsonian

In the unlikely location of Hutchinson, KS, this is an amazing place with the greatest collection outside of The National Air & Space Museum. On display: the Apollo 13 command module (Odyssey); a flown (unmanned) Vostok spacecraft; several flown spacesuits; and, of course, Gus Grissom’s Liberty Bell 7 Mercury spacecraft.

California Science Center in Los Angeles, California

There’s some great artifacts to be seen here! The ASTP command module; Gemini 11; the monkey-flown Mercury-Redstone 2; and Tom Mattingly’s Apollo 16 spacesuit.

700 State Drive, Los Angeles, CA; phone: (323) 724-3623