I’ve previously shared a visit to the interesting Evergreen Aviation Museum in the small city of McMinnville, the highlight of which was seeing Howard Hughes’ “Spruce Goose” aircraft. This blog post describes our visit to the second half of the museum complex, namely the Evergreen Space Museum.
The Space and Aviation Museums are twin buildings separated by a few hundred feet. As their names imply, the Aviation Museum features historic aircraft while the Space Museum presents man’s journeys beyond the Earth. The Aviation Museum was the first structure completed (2001) while its twin Space Museum building opened in 2008. Today the museums, while privately owned, are affiliated with the Smithsonian.
(Some of the highlights of the early Soviet Space program)
Historic aircraft are rare, but with effort and $$$ a variety can be obtained. Space memorabilia is exceedingly rare, and while the Space Museum has some interesting pieces it has a very different emphasis than the airplane filled Aviation Museum. It focuses instead on the history of space flight, with many panels and illustrations sharing important milestones, with photos. What I found very interesting was that the Soviet and USA space developments were presented in a parallel historic fashion, so that one could easily compare them at a given point in time.
(A sampling of the early American space program, including an original Mercury spacecraft shown below — one of 20 made)
I was a child during the great Space Race of the 1960s, but even so I remember aspects of it well. The Soviets got a big head start, launching the first unmanned probe (Sputnik), the first animal (a dog) into space, and the first human being (cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin). The United States was jumpstarted into the space race by President Kennedy, who very clearly stated that it was his government’s goal to get a man on the moon and return him to earth safely before the end of the 1960s.
The tragic death of President Kennedy in 1963 did not stop the USA space program, but rather made NASA try all the harder to achieve President Kennedy’s stated goal. And on July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 astronauts fulfilled President Kennedy’s promise in one of the most monumental moments in human history. I’ve had the great fortune of visiting with and speaking to Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, one of the first moon walkers about that experience, but that is a story for another day.
(The exciting Apollo program — to the Moon!)
The museum has a number of exhibits highlighting the journey to the moon, including a number of realistic mockups…..
I was unaware of the Russian Moon Walker program until I saw the following exhibit….
There are several significant attractions in the Museum, including a Titan II SLV satellite booster rocket, which extends below the floor to accommodate its 114-foot height.
The museum has an actual SR-71 Blackbird, which was developed as a spy craft during the Cold War. It could cruise at three times the speed of sound (more than 2,000 mph). Even today it remains the world’s fasted jet-propelled aircraft.
The museum has flight simulators. You can try your hand at landing the Space Shuttle, docking a Gemini capsule, or performing a Moon landing of the Lunar Excursion Module.
A few more exhibits that caught my eye including the Skylab airlock Module….
A reference to my all-time favorite movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
An assortment of advanced aircraft….
The Space Station’s escape vehicle….
The museum even has a section of the Berlin Wall.
I enjoyed this museum, but admittedly I am a fan of this kind of stuff. Still, this is an interesting place to visit, and you’ll know a lot more about space exploration when you leave than when you bought your ticket. You’ll need an entire day to visit both the Aviation Museum and its twin the Space Museum but like me you’ll likely find it a day well spent.
