posted 06-03-2008 07:45 PM               

Evergreen Space Museum Launches June 6

Oregon's largest space facility will compliment the home of the "Spruce Goose" and IMAX 3D Theater

The Evergreen Aviation Museum is famous for the world's largest wooden flying boat, the Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose, and the world's fastest aircraft ever built, the SR-71 Blackbird, but soon visitors will also enjoy another world class addition on June 6, 2008 - a new space facility.

Evergreen teamed with Hoffman Construction of Portland, Ore. and began construction of the new Space Museum in late September 2006. The 120,000 square foot facility will compliment the museum campus and reflect the same design as the home of the famous Spruce Goose.

The new museum will feature artifacts the facility has already acquired including the Titan II SLV missile, the Titan IV SLV missile, the Willamette Meteorite, the replica Lunar Module, the replica Lunar Rover and the Russian Photon Space Capsule.

The new facility also boasts a 65,000 square foot space gallery that will include dozens of authentic space artifacts, some of which are in the museum's permanent collection and others that will be loaned to the museum by he Kansas Cosmosphere and National Air & Space Museum. Major exhibits will include an X-15, a Redstone Rocket, Gemini capsule, Apollo capsule, Saturn Rocket, space food and a collection of space suits. Historic artifacts, full-scale replicas of spacecraft and interactive exhibits and simulators will all be used to tell the story of spaceflight. The centerpiece of the new facility will be a Titan II SLV missile. With this new exhibit, guests will be able to participate in a hands-on missile launch experience. The museum also plans to host a series of educational programs and space camps.

In addition to the exhibits, the Space Museum will feature visitor amenities including: An aviation and space themed playground, The Right Stuff Gift Store, The Cosmo Cafe, The Tasting Station Wine Bar, The Milky Way ice cream shop and the Sweet Space treat stop.

The new Space Museum will also become the home of McMinnville High School's Engineering and Science Academy (EASA) in September 2008. The Academy will be home to local students who will spend half day increments in labs and classes in the museum's new classroom facility.

posted 06-25-2008 01:11 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by mercsim:
I didn't see it mentioned but Mercury Capsule no. 10 will also be there.

---

posted 01-05-2009 12:49 AM               

The air museum was amazing, they had a great collection highlighted by the H-4 Spruce Goose. I would greatly advise anyone who loves aircraft and is in the area to stop by and check it out as it is an amazing museum. Here is a pic, but there is a lot of stuff on the other side of the Spruce Goose.

The space museum was nice, but a much newer attraction and still has quite a room to grow. They have a few nice things in there... but they need to add more. The biggest highlight in my eyes was unflown #10 Mercury capsule with retro rocket pack. It was really the only authentic manned space vechile at the museum. They had Jim McDivitt's flight suit from Gemini-IV which was cool... but most everything else were replicas. The had replicas of a Gemini capsule, Apollo capsule, LEM, Lunar Rover, etc.

In my eyes, the Mercury capsule is the highlight. They also have an SR-71 Blackbird and a replica X-15.

They also have a couple rockets on display including a V2, Redstone, and Titan.

posted 01-22-2009 10:41 AM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by E2M Lem Man:
I am curious about the X-15.

---

posted 12-13-2014 10:43 AM               

Both the Evergreen Aviation Museum and the Captain Michael King Smith Education Institute, which owns much of the remainder of the museum campus filed special notice requests with the court, to be kept apprised of the case, as did Umpqua Bank, which holds a deed of trust against the aviation museum display hall and the theater, and was assigned all of the rent from those two buildings, as collateral against an unpaid loan in 2008.

posted 12-15-2014 10:56 AM               

I went there last week, for the first time in several years (it's really not on the way to anywhere) and was impressed with the 'space' museum which is really more of a place for their helicopter and jet fighter collection. Most of the 'space' stuff is replica but cool to look at anyway.

posted 10-13-2015 06:15 PM               

Official Museum Statement

We have been notified that our landlord, the Michael King Smith Education Foundation, has received a writ of execution on the sale of both the Space Museum and Wings & Waves Waterpark. The Foundation is a separate entity that owns buildings on the Museum Campus including the Space building, chapel and the Evergreen Wings & Waves Waterpark.

The Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum is an independent non-profit organization. Museum Management is actively working on solutions to address this situation with the landlord. Visitor count at both the Museum and Waterpark is strong, and the Museum is profitable. We will continue to operate as usual and look forward to welcoming our guests.

posted 05-25-2022 02:24 PM               

The aviation aspect is very well-displayed, the highlights for me were the Spruce Goose, an A-10 Warthog, their SR-71 and the D-21 drone. They had a lot of jet fighters on display, both American and Soviet.

I really liked their space exhibit building (which had planes in it as well). There seemed to be a lot of nicely-detailed replicas on display, like a Mars Exploration Rover, a Russian Vega spacecraft, a Lunakhod, an American lunar rover, an Apollo lunar module, a Gemini (suspended from the ceiling), etc. Space hardware displayed included the twin-engine assembly from a Titan II, an S-IVb ullage rocket assembly, the trainer of Skylab's airlock module (the Gemini-style door of which had a window), a nitrogen purge van for a Titan IV, a multi-axis space satellite tracking camera etc.

I also noticed, while driving in the parking lot, pieces of a space shuttle SRB replica that will obviously be used for a future exhibit.

The items that I listed are a small fraction of what is on display. It was not crowded on a Friday afternoon, but it was not empty either. The place seems well-run and the staff is very pleasant and accommodating. I also enjoyed the fact that there were plenty of seats scattered around for us aged people to sit down and rest. It is a cute touch that these are all airline seats from one of their jetliners!

They also had a small, but very interesting telescope/astronomy exhibit, including a beautiful 133-year old antique refractor. I had a great time talking to the docent there, comparing observing and telescope "war" stories.