"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.

FMI: www.pimaair.org