Description
Book SynopsisSpace Age Adventures is a guidebook that recounts short entertaining stories from spaceflight history and details more than one hundred adventurous sites across the United States, including air and space museums, outdoor astronaut training locations, and historic destinations for space enthusiasts.
Trade Review“Part travel guidebook and part history lesson, anyone with even a passing interest in space will appreciate this resource. Mike Bezemek has created a long-needed and well-organized reference for planning trips to space-themed destinations in the United States. I had no idea all these places existed and appreciate how the included stories reference artifacts or displays that can be visited in person. Well done!”—Jay Gallentine, author of
Infinity Beckoned: Adventuring through the Inner Solar System, 1969–1989“Mike Bezemek shows that the next best thing to a flight into space is visiting the many places on Earth related to space exploration. In addition to sharing the exciting stories behind the museum artifacts,
Space Age Adventures takes readers to launch sites, astronomical observatories, and space museums around the United States. His work has provided me with lots of new ideas for space places to visit in the years to come.”—Chris Gainor, author of
To a Distant Day: The Rocket PioneersTable of ContentsPreface: Spaces Sites and Stories
Becoming a Space Age Adventurer
Using This Book and Must-See Sites
1. The First Rockets
2. Birth of the Space Rocket
3. The V-2 Sites in Washington DC and Virginia Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC
Smithsonian Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly VA
NASA Goddard Visitor Center, Greenbelt MD
NASA Wallops Flight Facility Visitor Center, Wallops Island VA
Virginia Air and Space Science Center, Hampton VA 4. The Cold War
5. Conquering Space
6. The Satellites Sites in New York City and the Northeast Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, New York NY
American Museum of Natural History, New York NY
Cradle of Aviation Museum, Garden City NY
McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, Concord NH
Moonshot Museum, Pittsburgh PA
Carnegie Science Center, Pittsburgh PA 7. The Space Race
8. Mercury vs. Vostok
9. In the Thick of It Sites Near Cape Canaveral, Florida Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Merritt Island FL
Sands Space History Center, Cape Canaveral FL
American Space Museum, Titusville FL 10. The Rise of Apollo
11. Adventures and Lessons
12. A Focus on the Moon Sites in the South and on the Gulf Coast Museum of Life and Science, Durham NC
Tellus Science Museum, Cartersville GA
U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville AL
National Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola FL
Infinity Science Center and NASA Stennis Visitor Center, Pearlington MS
Space Center Houston, Houston TX
Frontiers of Flight Museum, Dallas TX
SpaceX Starbase Launch Viewing, South Padre Island TX 13. Bold Steps and Tragic Setbacks
14. Closing In
15. Around the Moon Sites in the Midwest Great Lakes Science Center and NASA Glenn Visitor Center, Cleveland OH
International Women’s Air and Space Museum, Cleveland OH
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, Dayton OH
Armstrong Air & Space Museum, Wapakoneta OH
Grissom Memorial at Spring Mill State Park, Mitchell IN
Air Zoo Aerospace & Science Experience, Kalamazoo MI
Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago IL
Adler Planetarium, Chicago IL
St. Louis Science Center, St. Louis MO 16. 1969
17. They Came from Outer Space
18. The Landings Continue Sites in the Great Plains Stafford Air and Space Museum, Weatherford OK
Science Museum Oklahoma, Oklahoma City OK
Cosmosphere Space Museum, Hutchison KS
Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum, Ashland NE
South Dakota Air and Space Museum, Box Elder SD 19. The End of the Space Race
20. Aiming for the Stars
21. The Soviets Regroup Sites in the Southwest New Mexico Museum of Space History, Alamogordo NM
White Sands Missile Range Museum and Missile Park, White Sands NM
Spaceport America, Truth or Consequences NM
Roswell Museum and International UFO Museum & Research Center, Roswell NM 000
Very Large Array, Socorro NM
New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque NM
National Museum of Nuclear Science & History, Albuquerque NM
Space Foundation Discovery Center, Colorado Springs CO
Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum, Denver CO
Space and Science Fiction Sites, Southern Utah
Meteor Crater, Winslow AZ
Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff AZ
Astronaut Training Sites, Northern Arizona
Pima Air and Space Museum, Tucson AZ
Titan Missile Museum, Green Valley AZ
National Atomic Testing Museum and Nevada National Security Site, Las Vegas NV000
Extraterrestrial Highway, Highway 375 NV 22. Adventures in Orbit
23. Destination Deep Space
24. The Billionaires’ Space Race Sites on the West Coast San Diego Air and Space Museum, San Diego CA
California Science Center, Los Angeles CA
Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles CA
More Space Sites, Southern California
Science Fiction Film Sites, California
Chabot Space and Science Center, Oakland CA
USS Hornet Sea, Air, and Space Museum, Alameda CA
Aerospace Museum of California, Sacramento CA
Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, McMinnville OR
Museum of Flight, Seattle WA Appendix of Resources
Bibliography
