National Museum of Naval Aviation

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Space

Exhibits & Collections > History Up Close > Aircraft on Display (A-E)

When the first American blasted into outer space, he wore Navy wings of gold. Indeed, following Commander Alan B. Shepard’s landmark flight of May 5, 1961, naval aviation played a leading role in mankind’s exploration of space. The first American to orbit the Earth, the first and last man to set foot on the lunar surface, and the crew of the first Space Shuttle flight were all naval aviators.

The museum’s space exhibit charts this landmark journey to the stars through a range of rare artifacts, the most prominent of which is the capsule that carried the all-Navy Skylab II crew aloft for a twenty-eight day stay in space on May 25, 1973. A replica of a lunar rover and Apollo spacesuit can be viewed against the backdrop of sound recordings of original radio transmissions from the famed missions to the moon during the late -1960s and early-1970s.

The exhibit also documents the road to the space program with the display of early Navy high-pressure suits that inspired those worn by the first astronauts and a case containing uniforms and flight gear that belonged to naval aviator astronauts before they were selected for the program. A bell that resided on board the International Space Station and announced the arrival of each day links the earliest days of the space program to the modern era of space exploration.