DAYTON, Ohio -- The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force’s Space Shuttle Exhibit and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Learning Node will soon be launched into the museum’s new fourth building.
Turner Construction Company was recently awarded a $434,133 contract modification by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville District, to disassemble the Space Shuttle Exhibit and STEM Learning Node in the museum’s third building and transport them to the fourth building, where they will be re-assembled. The Space Shuttle Exhibit and STEM Learning Node will re-open when the fourth building opens in June 2016.
Aircraft and exhibits located near the current exhibit in the Cold War Gallery, including the AC-130, EF-111A, F-111F and F-117A, will be unavailable starting Oct. 19, and the work to begin disassembling the Space Shuttle Exhibit and STEM Learning Node will start later this year.
The Space Shuttle Exhibit featuring NASA’s first Crew Compartment Trainer and Teal Ruby satellite will be part of a new and expanded Space Gallery. The gallery will also include a massive Titan IVB space launch vehicle and satellite booster rocket that weighs 96 tons; Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft; and a range of other rockets, satellite launch vehicles, and space-related artifacts.
The current STEM Learning Node will be moved to the fourth building’s new Global Reach Gallery, which will include select cargo aircraft such as the C-21A, C-82A, C-130E and C-141C Hanoi Taxi. The Air Force’s airlift and aeromedical evacuation missions will also be explained in this gallery.
Future plans call for two new additional STEM Learning Nodes to be constructed in the fourth building with one located between the new Space and Research & Development Galleries and another in the new Presidential Gallery.
The $40.8 million fourth building is being privately financed by the Air Force Museum Foundation, a non-profit organization chartered to assist in the development and expansion of the museum’s facilities.
The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, is the world’s largest military aviation museum. With free admission and parking, the museum features more than 360 aerospace vehicles and missiles and thousands of artifacts amid more than 19 acres of indoor exhibit space. Each year about one million visitors from around the world come to the museum. For more information, visit www.nationalmuseum.af.mil.
The Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc. was established in 1960 as a philanthropic, non-profit organization to assist the Air Force in the development and expansion of the facilities of the National Museum of the United States Air Force, and to undertake and advance programs and activities supporting the museum. The Foundation raises funds through its membership program, the Air Force Museum Theatre, Museum Store, flight simulators and Valkyrie Café, as well as from direct donations. For more information about the foundation, visit www.afmuseum.com.
NOTE TO PUBLIC: For more information, contact the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at (937) 255-3286.
NOTE TO MEDIA: For more information, contact Rob Bardua in the National Museum of the United States Air Force Public Affairs Division at (937) 255-1386, or Sarah Swan at (937) 255-1283.