Posts: 152
From: Helsinki, Finland
Registered: May 2008

Posts: 1085
From: Smithfield, Me, USA
Registered: Mar 2005

Posts: 292
From: Germantown, WI USA
Registered: Jan 2004

posted August 17, 2009 06:49 AM               

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Freedom 7 is located at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, about 30 miles from the National Air and Space Museum (NASM).

Goddard Space Flight Center is about 15 miles from NASM.

The NASA headquarters building is just a few blocks away from NASM.

Arlington National Cemetery is about 5 miles away.

If you've got a little more time for driving, the Virginia Air & Space Center, Air Power Park, and Langley Research Center (which no longer has a visitor center on-site) are all in Hampton, Virginia, a bit over 3 hours' drive away.

And if you take the long way back to DC from Hampton, you could stop off at Wallops Island.

Posts: 29
From: Austria
Registered: Mar 2007

Posts: 1132
From: Washington, DC, USA
Registered: Apr 2003

posted February 14, 2010 06:24 AM               

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Interesting shot from 1983! However, NASA HQ got consolidated into one new (as of then) building in the early 1990's. It is now at 300 E St SW. In the photo, it is on the spot of a parking lot along the side of I-395. The lobby displays and gift shop are open to the public.

Another good site that is more aviation related than space related is the College Park (MD) Aviation Museum at the site of the Wright Bros test field from around 1910. There's also an early helicopter (a Neuport biplane fitted with about umpteen rotors with drive chains running all over the airplane) that would scare the bejeebers out of any modern day pilot!

Posts: 353
From: Bethesda, MD
Registered: Jul 2003

Posts: 1246
From: Greensboro, NC USA
Registered: Feb 2006

posted February 15, 2010 12:47 PM               

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Missing from the above lists is the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum on the Mall in Washington, DC. I believe this is still the most popular museum in the world based on number of people visiting every year.

In it you'll find the Apollo 11 Command Module "Columbia", Gemini IV, Friendship 7, LM-2, the second Skylab Orbital Workshop, a full-size Apollo-Soyuz docked configuration, an engineering backup of the Hubble Space Telescope (as well as one of the cameras that was retrieved on STS-125), SpaceShip One, the Wright Brothers' Flyer, the Spirit of St. Louis, an X-15...too many priceless treasures to list here.

No space enthusiast should come anywhere near Washington DC without planning to spend at least a couple of hours at the NASM.

Posts: 864
From: Staten Island, NY
Registered: Jun 2007

Posts: 1132
From: Washington, DC, USA
Registered: Apr 2003

Posts: 820
From: New Jersey, USA
Registered: Mar 2010

posted April 13, 2010 04:18 PM               

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Monday I got the chance to go to DC and visit NASA HQ. It's a really cool place from what I could see.

When you walk in they have an Apollo suit and a modern suit, both in display cases naturally. Their library is cool and we got a little tour of the library. They showed us some of the neat things they have like an anti-matter detector from the ISS.

On the security desk they had a binder with the phone numbers/employee directory which I would have loved to look through but it was at the security desk.

At the end of the library, they had a room with a bunch of free stuff and some books for sale. For free I got the following:

• Apollo 30th Anniversary coin containing metal from a Saturn V launch tower
  
• 2 Glory stickers
  
• A book: 'NASA 50 Years of Exploration and Discovery'
  
• Another book: 'NASA's Nuclear Frontier: The Plum Brook Reactor Facility' signed by both authors
  
• Expedition 5, STS-101, STS-117, STS-118, STS-122, STS-127 crew photos/lithos
  
• Signed photo of Steven Swanson
  
• A poster commemorating Apollo
  
• Photos of Eric Boe, Shane Kimbrough, and an old one of Shannon Lucid

Oddly enough they didn't have any crew photos of the more recent missions, although they may have had them and I could have missed it.

Overall it was worth the half hour walk. Would go back when I get the chance. I'll put photos up this weekend.

Posts: 69
From: Olmsted Falls, Ohio U.S.A.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted November 14, 2010 05:50 PM               

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My son and I visited the library/History Office at NASA Headquarters last weekend and had a great time. The people there were very friendly and really took care of us. My son was able to get the latest STS-133 patch sticker and crew litho as well as several monograms of the following:

• X-15
  
• Human Spaceflight Chronology
  
• Unmanned spacecraft mission chronology
  
• Augustine Report
  
• Human Mars Mission studies

In addition, while I was talking to one of the gentleman at the library about the curation of various historic NACA/NASA publications, a second person there was gracious enough to explain to my son the various (and numerous) models of manned and unmanned spacecraft that they had on display. They also showed us the first AMS instrument to fly on the ISS which is the predecessor to the AMS to fly on STS-134. Pretty cool!!

In the lobby was a shuttle launch/reenty suit as well as Frank Borman's suit. It was interesting that his suit was displayed with a PLSS backpack, given that it wasn't used on Apollo 8. Overall I would definitely recommend a visit there to any cS readers!!

Posts: 1576
From: MA, USA
Registered: Sep 2002

posted November 01, 2011 09:17 AM               

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I will be in DC and could use some advise.

I just went to Udvar-Hazy Center this past spring so is there anything new there or at the downtown National Air and Space Museum? I will only be down there one day and really only for a few hours so I want to see one or the other.

Posts: 1070
From: Worcestershire, England, UK.
Registered: Apr 2008

Posts: 23493
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

Posts: 864
From: Staten Island, NY
Registered: Jun 2007

posted November 01, 2011 03:04 PM               

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Speaking of NASM, be sure to check out the library on the 3rd floor. Not to many people know about it and you have to call ahead for reservations but it's worth it.

For the modelers out there it is the largest collection I have ever seen.