Armstrong Air & Space Museum

Neil Armstrong was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio. That explains the existence of this small, but surprisingly interesting museum. It’s built to look like a moon base might look — or at least how people thought a moon base might look at the time the museum was built. It tells the history of Armstrong and of space exploration, and while it does so rather sketchily, there are definite highlights.

There is an exact model of Sputnik, a goofy round air hockey table that supposedly demonstrates orbits, the plane in which Neil Armstrong learned to fly (stacked up against a wall as though it crashed), an exhibit on how astronauts go to the bathroom and a smattering of random items from Armstrong’s childhood. But mixed in with all that stuff are some really impressive displays — the actual Gemini VIII spacecraft, Armstrong’s space suits from his Gemini and Apollo flights, and a golf-ball sized moon rock. There’s also a video of the first landing on the moon.

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An exact replica of Sputnik, the first satellite, launched by Russia in 1957. It did nothing except emit the occasional beep, but it had the rest of the world quaking in its boots.

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The Gemini VIII capsule in which Armstrong traveled with David Scott. The mission was cut short when a malfunction occurred after the capsule docked with the Agena Target Vehicle. The Aeronca Champion airplane in which Armstrong learned to fly can be seen stacked against the wall in the background.

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A flag carried on the Apollo 11 mission.

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Armstrong’s suit from his Gemini mission, I think.

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F5D Skylancer, the only remaining (of 4) example of a plane built to “emulate flight characteristics of the space vehicle planned for use in Project Dyna-Soar, which called for the launch of a winged craft which could reenter the atmosphere and glide to a conventional landing following a mission to space.” Neil Armstrong piloted this plane during the early 1960’s.

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Models of the Gemini and Apollo capsules

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