Among the exhibits: the lunar module from the (unflown) Apollo 18 mission, on display here! Bet that Dick Gordon is still wishing he could take this baby out for a ride!  (The Apollo 18 mission, which Gordon was slated to command was cancelled. Apollo 17 was the last moonlanding.) This LM is on long-term loan [...]

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A science museum, largely focused on exhibits of interest to grade school children, its main space feature is an exhibit called “Space Command”. However, I am more impressed with the (often neglected) early full-sized lunar module mockup out back. Last I checked, if you noticed it at all, you could go right up to it [...]

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You’ll find this museum in Dallas, TX right by Love Field. While largely focused on aviation, this museum exhibits a number of “shoudn’t miss” items, including the Apollo 7 command module. 6911 Lemmon Avenue, Dallas, TX; (214) 350-3600

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Gus Grissom was the 2nd American in space. This museum in Grissom’s hometown of Mitchell, Indiana includes Gus’ Gemini capsule, the Molly Brown, suspended from the ceiling. Also on display: Grissom’s spacesuit, gloves and helmet from his Gemini mission and the flag that draped his coffin at Arlington National Cemetery. The museum is in Spring [...]

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This is the place; where NASA controls its manned space missions. This place is an active facility, and home to so much history. What you must do is take the tour. You can visit the historic Mission Control Center and the new, operating one. Then there’s the Astronaut Gallery, which boasts the world’s greatest collection [...]

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Located at Cleveland’s Burke Lakefront Airport (downtown), this is a free exhibit which includes a tribute to the Mercury 13 women—women who passed the tests to become Mercury astronauts, but were denied astronaut status…because the United States wasn’t ready. (The Soviet Union was; they launched the first women in space, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963.) The [...]

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The ship Intrepid is itself a primary recovery vessel for NASA. It was the primary recovery ship for Scott Carpenter’s Mercury flight, Aurora 7. When the craft landed hundred’s of miles off target, the Intrepid sent out two helicopters to search for the craft and astronaut. Both were successfully recovered. A replica of Aurora 7 [...]

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Ok, so it’s not strictly a museum. Yeah, it’s the actual working facility from which the United States launches most of its rockets and all of its manned space missions. But they’ve got an amazing collection of treats for the space-buff. There’s the rocket garden, with a slew of (mostly real) vintage rockets: the Saturn [...]

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This venue has some things worth seeing: a full-scale mockup of Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 spacecraft (booster and all) outside…with an interactive program that tells the story of Shepard’s ground-breaking (and shaking!) flight! Inside, you’ll find more about Shepard, and about another New Hampshire native, Christa McAuliffe—the teacher-in-space who lost her life in the Challenger [...]

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