U.S. Space and Rocket Center (Huntsville, Alabama)

[pTrevTrevs]

This weekend I visited Huntsville, Alabama, home to Redstone Arsenal, the Marshall Space Flight Center, and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. Although I was in town for unrelated business, I decided to to visit the Space Center, since I was too close to not stop by when I had the chance. This time, I remembered to take a few pictures, and thought I would share them here.

The Space Shuttle Pathfinder was a mock up built out of steel and wood for ground testing, and was not meant for flight. I believe this is the only full assembly (orbiter, SRBs, external tank) of the space shuttle in the entire world. It was so big I couldn't even fit the entire thing in frame.

An Apollo era White Room with two astronaut mannequins and a technician. I don't know for certain, but I believe this is a real one actually used for Apollo.

Models of the Soyuz and Conestoga rockets, located outside the entrance to the IMAX theater.

The Apollo 16 Command Module, Casper.

A moon rock brought back by Apollo 12. The writing below is Alan Bean's thoughts on the rock. It reads "I remember this rock... it was my favorite one."

Interior of a Lunar Module. I can't remember if this was a simulator or simply a replica, but in any case I wasn't allowed inside. There was barely any room to move around anyway, it was much smaller than I had expected.

Panoramic of the interior of the Skylab workshop's first floor. This too, seemed very small in comparison to photographs, I guess in weightlessness you can make better use of the room available, and thus don't need as much.

Owen Garriott's space suit, used for several EVAs on his Skylab mission. Although I neglected to photograph it, a Sokol space suit used by his son (apparently he was an astronaut too!) sits beside it.

A fragment from Skylab that survived reentry and landed more or less intact. As the plaque says, this was one of the largest fragments recovered from Skylab.

A Saturn I with an Apollo boilerplate on top. This rocket has been at the museum since it opened in 1969, and was delivered the same day as the Saturn V Dynamic Test Vehicle, which now lies horizontal inside the museum. Also, they had one of those centifuge rides you can usually find at carnivals, but I decided not to ride it.

This is not the Saturn V I mentioned in the last caption, but rather a replica built for the museum in the 1990s. It stands in such a way that you can walk under the first stage and peer up into the engine nozzles. Again, the size of these things in pictures can be very deceptive. I still can't fathom how big the rocket is. I believe I made a remark about how the F-1 engine was big enough for me to make a small house out of it.

This is a mock-up of the entirety of Skylab (solar panels sold separately), as opposed to just the workshop as shown in an earlier photo. It looks like this thing has been there for some time, and I doubt it's going to be moved any time soon. If you look closely underneath the telescope you might see a person (he just happened to be there, I don't know him) which should give you an idea of how big the station is.

Those are all the pictures I have, and they don't come close to encompassing how awesome this museum is. In addition to these exhibits, they had the Apollo 12 Mobile Quarantine Trailer, a Mercury simulator, several Gemini trainers, a V-2, the cabin for the Apollo Command Module simulator (which you could climb in), a replica of Wernher von Braun's office with his original desk, chair, and rocket models, and so much more. If you happen to be travelling through or near Huntsville, make sure to swing by (and allow at least five hours), it's definitely worth it.

[razark]

17 minutes ago, pTrevTrevs said:

apparently he was an astronaut too!

Of the tourist kind.

[The Raging Sandwich]

I've been there dozens of times as I live near its general vicinity. The last time I was there (only to buy a t-shirt at the gift shop), i took a photo of the saturn-v and made it the wallpaper of my phone. The time before that, I saw Star Wars Episode 7 in IMAX. It's a really fun place! (And yes, I went on the G-force ride, too. )

[pTrevTrevs]

2 hours ago, razark said:

Of the tourist kind.

Ah. Well, I guess being a tourist astronaut is better than not being any kind of astronaut at all.

[Bill Phil]

I see the Saturn V replica pretty often, since I live pretty close to the Center. Love the place. I did find an error last time I was there. In one of the rooms, there was a painting of Neptune and its moon Triton, but the plaque beneath called the moon "Titan."

[legoclone09]

hey @CobaltWolf skylab please

[NSEP]

So cool! Im going to a small space museum next week, but its very very small compared to this one. It is also quite childish there.

[pTrevTrevs]

9 hours ago, NSEP said:

So cool! Im going to a small space museum next week, but its very very small compared to this one. It is also quite childish there.

Yep! It's supposed be the largest space museum in the world!

[NSEP]

Im going to a space museum this Sunday. It is located near the ESTEC Test Centre in Noordwijk wich is pretty cool.

The real Soyuz Capsule of the TMA-03M mission is there. Im pretty exited to see that. That is bassicly everything that is real in there.

But it is like dust compared to any space museum in the US and Russia.