New Mexico Museum of Space Flight and the White Sands Missile Range Museum
Alamogordo is the home to the New Mexico Museum of Space History which also is the home of the International Space Hall of Fame and the gravesite of 'Hamm' - the first chimpanzee in space. The Museum of Space Flight is dedicated to educate about New Mexico's role in the space age and contains many interesting artifacts and displays related to space flight. Alamogordo is also near the White Sands Missile Range which also played an important role in scientific and military rocketry research and development and has an fascinating museum on the base.New Mexico played a vital role in the development of rocket science long before there was an official US Space Program and the creation of NASA. Dr. Robert Goddard, a pioneering engineer and inventor of the first liquid-fueled rockets, moved to New Mexico in the 1930s to continue his research and the wide-open and flat expanses of the state provided an excellent location for testing new rockets. During the Space Race, NASA conducted a lot of research and testing of rocket engines and hardware and still maintains R&D facilities in the area.
The Museum has several exhibits outside that immediately draw your attention including a full scale Little Joe rocket (used by NASA to test the escape rockets for the Apollo Command Module), a F-1 Engine (these are the largest rocket engine ever created and used to propel the Saturn V rockets from the launch pad and into Earth orbit). There is also the wreckage of an infamous V2 rocket which highlights the darker side of rocketry, but yet also played an important role in the research of rocketry, propulsion, and guidance which Werner Von Braun and others built upon as they developed the Saturn V rocket that took 24 men to the Moon between 1968 and 1972.
Once inside the museum you head to the 4th floor which contains exhibits of Sputnik (considered the starting salvo of the US / USSR Space Race), models of Soviet and American space capsules, and various space exploration related equipment. The walls are also lined with the photos and short bios of the men and women who have been indicted into the International Space Hall of Fame (astronauts, scientists, visionaries who contributed to the birth and growth of spaceflight). There is even an area you can try on a fake space suit and pose for your out of this world selfies. The museum is a tribute to the vital role New Mexico played in the development of the US Space Program.
White Sands Missile Range Museum
New Mexico is also home to the White Sands Missile Range which is an active US Army base which mission is to assist in the research, development, and testing of rockets, missiles, and other types of military and special equipment. The museum is open 10 to 4 but is on the base and so you will need to park outside the gates and check in at the visitor center or with the base security officers to then walk over to the museum. The museum consists of static displays of various missiles and rockets from each branch of the US military and two buildings with historically significant artifacts including a full scale mockup of a V2 rocket (many V2s were tested at WSMR by Dr. Werner Von Braun and other giants of the space program). One of the most interesting displays was a Redstone rocket which is a replica of the rocket Alan Shepard flew to become the first American in space on May 5th, 1961. What was fascinating about it is the rocket is so small and primitive compared to the enormous Saturn V rocket that carried Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins to the Moon a mere 8 years and 2 months later.
http://www.nmspacemuseum.org
http://www.wsmr-history.org
