Just a short drive today; 100 miles from Birmingham to Huntsville, AL to see the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. This is the third big space center I’ve visited and it is the one I enjoyed the most. Although some exhibits are very similar to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Space Center Houston there seemed to be a greater proportion of genuine artifacts (as opposed to mock ups) and more scientific exhibits like the large centrifuge, used to train astronauts to withstand g-forces, that visitors can experience. This maybe due to the fact that the highly respected educational Space Camps are held here or that the Marshall Space Flight Center, where the engines and rockets for almost all American space operations were developed, is just down the road. Between them, the educators and the rocket scientists put on a good show!

There also seemed to be a greater range of exhibits. There was a full sized International Space Station (obviously a mock up) that I had not seen anywhere else and was amazed by its size. The Saturn V rocket is the only one on display that was actually fired during testing for the Apollo missions and the actual lunar module from Apollo 16 is here as well as a large part from Spacelab that survived re-entry. Just before leaving I watched a superb IMAX movie about life on the International Space Station with many spellbinding images of Earth. Overall a very impressive experience.

Road video and route map

This is the only location that displays the Space Shuttle stack in its entirety with both external fuel tank and solid booster rockets.

The International Space Station is so large I could only get about half in one shot. You can walk through some sections.

The Saturn V fills this building and is the only one on display that was actually used in the Apollo program. There is also a mock up standing vertically outside the building.

Other Apollo lunar modules I’ve seen are mock ups. The genuine Apollo 16 module looks well worn. Here you can see the effects of re-entry.