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Author Topic:   New Mexico Museum of Space History
Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 10-05-2008 02:06 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Alamogordo Daily News: Space history museum turns 32 years old
Inside the museum, known as the "Golden Cube" nearly from the initial planning, is one of three Soviet Sputnik Is known to be left in the world. Adjacent is the United States' response to Sputnik: a mockup of Explorer 1.

The first U.S. satellite held James Van Allen's radiation detector that discovered radiation belts surrounding Earth. Early in his career, Van Allen tested similar devices at White Sands Proving Grounds. The museum also displays a basalt rock from the moon, one of 832 pounds of rocks Apollo astronauts returned with; as well as the Moon hemisphere sculpture that hung behind CBS newsman Walter Cronkite on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

Other artifacts include trinitite from the world's first atomic bomb test on July 16, 1945, at WSMR, along with mementoes from Joe Kittinger's jump from 102,800 feet during Project Manhigh. Ed Dittmer, an Alamogordo resident, is featured in displays training chimps HAM (an acronym for Holloman Aero Medical) and Enos. Dittmer participated in Manhigh, too. He and Kittinger were also the first Americans to perform the first parabolic flights over White Sands that create 20-30 seconds of weightlessness for astronaut training. Today the maneuver is done in what is called the "Vomit Comet."

And, HAM is buried on the grounds.

Jurg Bolli
Member

Posts: 977
From: Albuquerque, NM
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 10-06-2008 11:54 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jurg Bolli   Click Here to Email Jurg Bolli     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This is a great museum, and the landscape around it, White Sands in particular, is worth a visit.
Jurg

spaceychick
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Posts: 35
From: Lockport, IL USA
Registered: Sep 2008

posted 10-14-2008 10:48 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for spaceychick   Click Here to Email spaceychick     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This was a surprisingly nice museum. I wore my "HAM - Astrochimp" t-shirt the day I visited and the ladies at the ticket counter were so impressed, they let me in free!! I left a banana on Ham's grave as a tribute. Check out my pics: 1 | 2

Lisa

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spaceychick
spaceychick.com

Lou Chinal
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Posts: 1306
From: Staten Island, NY
Registered: Jun 2007

posted 10-14-2008 12:44 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Lou Chinal   Click Here to Email Lou Chinal     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Lisa-

I wondered were Ham's "spacesuit" was. The spacecraft (production #5) was at McDonnell for a long time. It was used in tests at Wallops Island of the Stullken flotation collar, after the flight. I often thought it should be on display with other Ham memorabilia.

-Lou

AFGAS
Member

Posts: 89
From: Merritt Island, FL
Registered: Feb 2008

posted 10-15-2008 09:57 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for AFGAS   Click Here to Email AFGAS     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Ham's Mercury spacecraft is on display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, CA. Check the Field Guide here.

spaceychick
Member

Posts: 35
From: Lockport, IL USA
Registered: Sep 2008

posted 10-15-2008 10:35 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for spaceychick   Click Here to Email spaceychick     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I've seen Ham's capsule in California (see my pic). I also saw some of his "stuff" at the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson in Ohio.

Lisa

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spaceychick
spaceychick.com

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