 THE SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL AIR & SPACE MUSEUM, WASHINGTON DC The king of space museums – and regular home of the Apollo 11 command module, which has been displayed here since 1971 – the Smithsonian boasts around 17,000 space artefacts in its collection, including 400 directly related to the first lunar landing. The big one for this year is


National Air & Space Museum


Armstrong’s spacesuit, going on display in July in its first public outing in 13 years. It will be accompanied by other one-off experiences, including a five-day extravaganza centred on the National Mall, taking place over the dates the astronauts flew (July 16-20). Lunar Module 2 – similar in


SAMPLE PRODUCT


North America Travel Service offers a 14-night fly-drive that visits Huntsville,


Atlanta, Nashville, Memphis and beyond from £2,946, including tickets to the Space & Rocket Center.


northamerica travelservice.co.uk


Funway Holidays offers a week in Houston from £1,545 at Best Western Plus New Caney, including United Airlines flights


on July 15. A Space Center Houston and city tour can be added for £62. funway4agents. co.uk


Heroes and Legends. Here, special effects, holograms, augmented reality and a 3D theatre combine to create a spectacle that’s every bit as futuristic as you’d expect. Gold Medal offers tickets from £54.


 MUSEUM OF FLIGHT, SEATTLE For those wanting to glimpse Apollo 11 itself, Seattle’s space museum beckons. From April 13 to September 2 this year, it will be hosting the travelling exhibit Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission, where Columbia, the command module of Apollo 11 itself, will be on display. The module was one of three


compartments that made up the spacecraft, acting as the sleeping quarters for Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. Now visitors can see its interior with an interactive 3D tour, and glimpse more than 20 one-of-a-kind objects – many of which were flown in the mission – on loan from Washington DC’s Smithsonian. There’ll also be other artefacts


from Nasa and Russian space flights, plus an array of events to celebrate the anniversary, from an opening festival this weekend (April 13-14) – featuring virtual reality activities, family workshops and an over-21s ‘intergalactic’ party – to a lunar photography exhibition in August.


46travelweekly.co.uk11 April 2019


appearance to the Eagle module used on Apollo 11 to take the astronauts from lunar orbit to the moon’s surface – is also on display at the Boeing Milestones of Flight exhibition, while an Imax cinema, planetarium and more help visitors learn about the universe in an experiential, memorable way.


 US SPACE & ROCKET CENTER, ALABAMA If that doesn’t quite satisfy the appetite, there’s only one thing for it: the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama – the biggest space museum on the planet and the official visitor centre for Nasa’s Marshall Space Flight Center (the place where Nasa’s rockets and


Visitors can meet a real- life astronaut, wander the Astronaut Hall of Fame and tour the Rocket Garden


spacecraft are developed and tested). It was here that Saturn V was engineered, and its heritage is marked across the city – not least by a 110m-high replica of the rocket that soars up from outside the museum, punctuating the skyline. This year, the centre is doing


everything it can to commemorate the achievement, with highlights including a Guinness World Record attempt on July 16 that will see 5,000 rockets launched into the sky at 8.32am, the exact time the rocket ignited in 1969. It will be followed by a ‘homecoming dinner’ with brass band entertainment, and an all-out street party with dancing aplenty in downtown Huntsville. There’ll also be a celebration car


show on July 13 featuring cars from the Apollo era, a special concert on July 20 to mark the landing date, lunar landing re-enactments at the museum’s new planetarium, and an all-new exhibition, Apollo: When We Went to the Moon, tracing the Space Race journey.


It doesn’t end there, though. It’s here that you’ll find the much talked-about


Kennedy Space Center


PICTURES: CHASE DONG; DANE PENLAND/SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION NATIONAL AIR & SPACE MUSEUM


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