S M I T H S O N I A N   I N S T I T U T I O N
N A T I O N A L   A I R   &   S P A C E   M U S E U M

Washington D.C.

The Space Race Gallery is a magical place, filled to the brim with spacecraft, missles, and telescopes. It reminds me of my toy chest as a kid, except this is on a much larger scale, of course. This exhibit chronicles a time when the USA and USSR were elbowing their way into space, both attempting to claim the prize of space supremacy. In the end, both countries agreed on a partnership, whereby they pooled their resources and together they built a space station. What a nice ending to a rocky start.

Let's start in the Missile Pit. The missiles on display here are so tall, they had to dig a pit to fit them inside the building.

Here are some views of the towering missiles. There are six missiles in the pit, all are American.

Viking Jupiter-C

Vanguard Aerobee 150

Scout-D Minuteman III

Photo reconnaissance is an important endeavour, and what better place to do it than from outer space. The Corona Project was America's first effort at capturing images from space. It was a challenging feat, however. Imagine trying to take a clear picture of an earthly sight while orbiting the planet 100 miles up and going over 17,000 mph? And I thought taking pictures from my van while driving at 60 mph was a grand accomplishment. Hardly.