by A twice-flown SpaceX capsule has been put on public display next to the second Mercury spacecraft to send an American into Earth orbit and the first Apollo command module to fly astronauts to the moon.
The last-generation Dragon capsule built by SpaceX to carry cargo to and from the International Space Station went on display Sunday (May 19), as part of a renovated gallery at the recently renamed Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. A $125 million grant from the hedge fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin — the largest contribution in the museum’s history — helped renovate the Henry Crown Space Center, including the addition of a SpaceX display.
“This is the first major renovation of the Henry Crown Space Center since it opened in 1986,” said Voula Saridakis, curator at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, in an interview with collectSPACE.com. “Previously, the current gallery was up to the space shuttle and crewed and uncrewed missions through the 1990s.”
“We have updated all the content now,” said Saridakis. “It’s still a show about space exploration from the 1950s, but now it focuses on space exploration from the last 20 to 30 years.”
Related: SpaceX: Facts about Elon Musk’s private space flight company
Astronaut Scott Carpenter’s 1962 mercury spacecraft “Aurora 7” and the Apollo 8 command module that Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders flew to the moon in 1968 remain superstars, but so is SpaceX Dragon and other artifacts were added later. the gallery.
“When you first walk into the Henry Crown Space Center, that’s where we have the Apollo and Mercury and you take in that history,” Saridakis said. “Then, as you move towards the back, that is where you see the entrance to the Dragon enclosure, go in there and experience the missions later, see what they show and why they are important.”
Dragon C113, donated by SpaceX and delivered to the museum two years ago, logged 64 days on its two missions to the space station. It was used for the 12th and 17th commercial replacement services (CRS) flights launched under contract for NASA in 2017 and 2019, respectively. Among its deliverables were the Cosmic-Ray Energetics and Mass (CREAM) science instrument and the STP-H6 demonstration, the latter built to make the first space-based X-ray band communications.
C113 is only the second Dragon spacecraft to go on permanent public display after another of the first generation capsules at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. SpaceX will also display an aviation Dragon inside its Hawthorne, California headquarters.
As part of the renovation, the Dragon and Apollo 8 were placed in custom conical glass cases that surround visitors on capsule tours using lighting effects and video walls.
“We’ve created these new glass cases for both the Apollo and Dragon that 360 supplies [degree] views. Videos have both backgrounds, very immersive pieces of media, so you feel like you’re really in space,” Saridakis told collectSPACE. “Radial lights extend in a line across the display, and there are lights inside the situations that work too. with the background videos as you watch the footage from the launch, time float through space and re-enter.”
Other artifacts in the Henry Crown Space Center also benefit from new effects. “Aurora 7” has its own video wall, and an Apollo lunar module test article has been inserted into a recreation of its original environment.
“It’s a very unique artifact in that it’s the only one used by all 12 astronauts [to walk on the moon] trained at the Kennedy Space Center. We reimagined that space to look more like the training area, rather than trying to present the lunar module as it actually was on the moon.”
RELATED STORIES:
— SpaceX’s Dragon: The first private spacecraft to reach the space station
— Aurora 7: Astronaut Scott Carpenter’s mercury flight in pictures
— The Apollo Program: How NASA sent astronauts to the moon
Visitors to the Henry Crown Space Center can also see tools and food used by Apollo-era astronauts and prototype clothing and a biofeedback belt worn by Mae Jemison, the first US woman of color to fly into space and a native Chicago.
Saridakis said she has even more planned to come.
“The Apollo and Mercury are on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, but we’re definitely looking to add more space artifacts to our permanent collection here at the Museum of Science and Industry,” she said.
Continue collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collect SPACE. Copyright 2024 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.
