posted 06-23-2010 12:05 AM               

Tuesday, the capsule traveled 13 miles to become the centerpiece of NASA's Glenn Visitor Center at its new location in the Great Lakes Science Center.

The center spent about $120,000 to move the Apollo command module used to fly three astronauts to and from Skylab, America's first space station.

The trip lasted about 30 minutes but took more than a year to plan. The module is a historic artifact, so the Smithsonian Institution and NASA had to approve every step.

An Akron company, Thomarios, which preserved a Saturn V rocket at the Kennedy Space Center, restored, then helped transport the 11-foot-high, 13-foot wide Apollo command module. Norris Brothers Co., of Cleveland, provided the rigging for the 12,800 pound module and its 1,200 pound stand.

Workers tore down part of the walls in the Brookpark Road center and wrapped the module in a cotton cover, aluminum and shrink wrap before taking it out. The capsule spent Monday night in the NASA hangar at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

In the morning, a truck carried the capsule along interstates, then down East Ninth Street to its new home along Lake Erie.

posted 04-21-2011 03:25 PM               

We really were pressed for time and I basically wanted to see the Skylab 3 CM (SLM-2) relocation from NASA Glenn. They really have done a good job and they display more than they did at NASA Glenn area.

posted 11-26-2013 05:25 PM               

I was very happy seeing the large number of people in the NASA exhibits and look forward to them opening another gallery highlighting the work of the NASA Glenn Research Center. The great thing to is that as opposed to the old visitor center, everyone (U.S. citizens and foreign nationals) can view these exhibits.

Here is the main gallery as you walk in. Prominently displayed in the center is the Skylab 2 command module. They did a terrific job displaying her to the visitor center guests.

Here are close ups of the interior of the Skylab 2 command module. cS readers will really enjoy the up close views of the CM compared to what they used to have at the old visitor center.

Buzz Aldrin's training coveralls, Paul Weitz's EVA suit and right is Jack Lousma's Skylab coveralls.

A nice display of John Glenn material including his STS-95 jumpsuit and his early Project Mercury training jacket. They have a good video telling his life's story.

A view of one of the many space simulators there. They have two shuttle landing simulators, two lunar module/Altair lunar landing simulators, and two jet simulators. This is a view of my son Adam trying his first shuttle landing. I had actually built and donated the space shuttle/pad 39A model that you see to left to NASA Glenn and it made it down to the new visitor center!

A view of the landing bag system for the Mars Pathfinder rover. This system was drop tested at the NASA Glenn Space Power Facility to ensure that the system would survive rolling over rocks at various landing angles. They have a couple of the rocks that they used on display, and if you look closely at the landing bags, you can see where some of them have small abrasions/tears.

A full scale model of Friendship 7 that you can go into. Once you're inside, you can try various switches and such. Also, you can watch a portion of the original NASA film about Friendship 7's launch. Everytime you hear John Glenn's heartbeat in the film, you can feel the heartbeat sensation in the cockpit seat!!

A view of Robonaut one, who was used during some of the Desert Rats training sessions.

A view of the NASA Glenn combustion experiment lab trainer, similar to the one flying on the ISS.

A view of the Ohio Astronaut display where you can learn about each astronaut who was either born or lived in Ohio.

A view of the exhibit where you can drive the model of the Curiousity rover.

posted 09-01-2018 12:08 PM               

What a day! We honored Dr. Guion Bluford with a new NASA's Glenn Research Center Visitor Center exhibit featuring personal memorabilia provided by his trips to space!

posted 09-22-2023 07:41 PM               

How the Skylab 3 Command Module Found Its Home in Cleveland

On Sept. 25, 1973, Tim Hogan and his colleagues from the Navy's Underwater Demolition Team leapt from a hovering helicopter into the churning Pacific Ocean to recover the Apollo Command Module and its crew following NASA's Skylab 3 mission. Nearly 13 years later, Hogan and the command module were reunited when the capsule became an exhibit at NASA's Lewis Research Center (today, NASA Glenn) in Cleveland. It is now on display at Great Lakes Science Center, home of the NASA Glenn Visitor Center.

NASA's Skylab missions in the early 1970s relied on existing Apollo hardware to support the nation's first long-duration stays in space. The Apollo Command Module was used to ferry the three-person crews to and from the Skylab space station. The third Skylab mission, launched by a Saturn IB rocket on July 28, 1973, included several space walks and a host of medical and biological experiments. The 59.5 days that astronauts Alan Bean, Jack Lousma, and Owen Garriott spent in space set a U.S. endurance record.

After 858 orbits, the Apollo Command Module undocked from Skylab at 4:16 a.m. PST on Sept. 25, 1973. Eleven hours later, the capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean southwest of San Diego. The recovery ship, the USS New Orleans, steamed toward the site while five Sikorsky helicopters raced ahead. The capsule bobbed upside down until its flotation bags inflated. Hogan and the other Navy frogmen jumped into the rough sea to secure the capsule. Hogan was responsible for gathering up one of the parachutes so it could be extracted from the water while the others secured a flotation ring around the capsule.

The command module was hoisted onto the deck of the recovery ship roughly 42 minutes after splashdown. Unlike the Apollo missions, the Skylab crews remained inside the capsule until it was on the deck. The hatch was opened several minutes later, and a flight surgeon examined the astronauts. The crew, which was feeling the effects of gravity on their bodies, exited the capsule. After a night of medical exams, the ship docked in San Diego, and the astronauts were transported to Houston.

The Apollo Command Module was unloaded from the ship the following day and sent to the North American Rockwell facility on Oct. 1, 1973. The capsule was declared a historical artifact and transferred to the Smithsonian Institution in 1977.

Meanwhile, NASA Lewis, which had tested the Skylab shroud in 1970, opened its new visitor center in July 1976. It was the center's first facility open to the public. It included an exhibits wing, an auditorium, and a large lobby.

In 1986, NASA Lewis announced that the Smithsonian was lending the Apollo Command Module to its visitor center. The center had displayed Apollo 8 and Apollo 17 capsules on a temporary basis in the early 1970s, but the Skylab 3 capsule would remain indefinitely. The 13-foot diameter and 11-foot-tall capsule arrived in May 1986 and underwent several months of preparation in NASA's hangar. On Aug. 20, 1986, it was moved to the visitors center where it was inserted through a truck entrance and placed on a base. The entrance was then replaced by a large viewing window.

On Sept. 21, 1986, NASA held a dedication ceremony for the new exhibit that featured Jack Lousma, one of the Skylab 3 astronauts. The event was held during an employee open house and drew 2,400 attendees, including Hogan, who had been working at the center since 1977. The Apollo Command Module became the visitor center's premier exhibit. In July 1992, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers designated the Apollo Command Modules as International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmarks.

In January 2010, NASA announced that it would be relocating its visitor center to Great Lakes Science Center in downtown Cleveland. The new location would make the NASA exhibits much more accessible to the community. Although the science center had been open since 1996, the Apollo Command Module was the first significant historical item in its collection. The capsule was transferred to the new site in June 2010. Within days, thousands of visitors had viewed it.

The science center will be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of NASA's Skylab 3 Apollo Command Module on Sept. 23, 2023.