"The Space Race" Retrospective Now Open To The Public
This past Friday, February 4, the Pima Air & Space Museum
opened their latest addition. A permanent exhibition, The Space
Race, explains the history of pioneers who dreamed of peaceful
space travel prior to World War II through current day exploration
of the Solar System. The display is divided into four
sections: pre-World War II, the Cold War, present day discoveries
and territorial acquisition of outer space.
The Pre-World War II section is highlighted by the works of
Tsiolkovsky, von Braun, Oberth and Robert Goddard who found
themselves developing superweapons used during World War II instead
of breaking new ground in the early stages space exploration.
The Cold War Era section covers the period between 1945-1989,
known for the Cold War as well as for its technological offspring,
The Space Race.
The Modern Space Travel section focuses on carrying the space
travel story to the present time with introductions of new
participants, including Europe, Russia, Japan, India and China
while also touching on the rise of private industry, international
cooperation, space law and new national egos and interests.
Finally, the Solar System Real Estate section teaches about the
history of territorial acquisition in the Solar System, who
explored and what, in addition to outlining who has claimed pieces
of real estate in the solar system, despite international
agreements to the contrary.
"There is something magical about men and women finally
traveling to space after over half a century of dreaming about it,
then walking on the moon and now exploring the entire solar
system," says Daniel Ryan, Executive Director of the Pima Air &
Space Museum. "We are proud to be able to showcase such an
important part of history and hope to expand the exhibit as space
exploration continues."
This exhibit includes 200 images, political posters, diagrams and a
unique collection of engineering, factory and general interest
models and artifacts. These include clothing, popular culture toys,
capsule replicas, cockpit trainer and planetary globes. Interactive
multimedia displays consist of a robotic arm illustrating the
principles on which shuttle and space station arms operate, audio
recordings of satellites, astronauts, and cosmonauts including John
Glenn, Neil Armstrong, Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova and
even the paranoia-generating "beep, beep, beep!" of Sputnik along
with film clips of the Apollo mission astronauts on the moon and
training on earth.
A world-class aerospace attraction since 1976, the Pima Air
& Space Museum is one of the world's largest non-government
funded aerospace museums relying heavily on volunteer
participation. A member of the Arizona Aerospace Foundation,
the museum houses more than 200 of the most important aircraft in
the history of flight and is open daily (except for Thanksgiving
and Christmas day) from 0900 to 1700, with last admittance at
1600.