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Major New Space Race Exhibit Opens May 20 at the Museum of Flight

Exhibit features first display of historic Apollo Moon rockets

SEATTLE – May 20, 2017, The Museum of Flight will open an exciting exhibit about the American and Soviet “Space Race” to the Moon during the 1960s. It is a story of individuals taming powerful new technologies to fulfill impossible dreams. The exhibit will also be the first public display of the long-lost rocket engines that launched Apollo astronauts to the Moon.

The historic Apollo 12 and 16 F-1 engines that boosted the might Saturn V Moon rockets were lost at the bottom of the sea for 43 years until discovered and raised by Seattle-based Bezos Expeditions in 2013. The sunken remains were our last missing links to the first adventures to another world. The aged and sculptural artifacts still show the scars of their service and of resting in the depths. They will now solemnly punctuate the Museum’s new exhibit about the dramatic adventure of spaceflight through the post-Apollo ebb in the 1970s.

The exhibit will also feature many other unique artifacts from the Space Race, including Moon rocks, a lunar roving “moon buggy,” the only Viking Mars lander on Earth, space suits and the first Apollo spacecraft.

The Museum’s existing Charles Simonyi Space Gallery on the West Campus will continue with the story of the space shuttle, plus the latest in current and future spaceflight.

The Museum of Flight is located at 9404 E. Marginal Way S., Seattle, Exit 158 off Interstate 5 on Boeing Field halfway between downtown Seattle and Sea-Tac Airport. The Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Museum admission for adults is $23.00 on-site and $21.00 online. Youth 5 through 17 are $14.00 on-site and $13 online, youth 4 and under are free. Seniors 65 and over $19 on-site and $18 online. Groups of ten or more: $21.00 per adult, $13.00 per youth, Thanks to Wells Fargo, on the first Thursday of every month, admission is free from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. And parking is always free. There is a full lunch menu café in the Museum and a limited menu café in the Aviation Pavilion, both operated by McCormick & Schmick’s. For general Museum information, please call 206-764-5720 or visit www.museumofflight.org

Former President Lyndon B. Johnson and then-current Vice President Spiro Agnew are among the spectators at the launch of Apollo 11, which lifted off on July 16, 1969. NASA photo.