Traveling to the moon is easier than you think, at least here in Ohio. Enjoy traveling this circular route throughout the state to space museums, astronaut homes, and replica space shuttles. Wonder in awe at humanity’s achievements as we look to planets far from our own, and discover how the space technologies our scientists and engineers develop continue to affect your daily life.
Traveling to the moon is easier than you think, at least here in Ohio. Enjoy traveling this circular route throughout the state to space museums, astronaut homes, and replica space shuttles. Wonder in awe at humanity’s achievements as we look to planets far from our own, and discover how the space technologies our scientists and engineers develop continue to affect your daily life.
1 National Museum of the U.S. Air Force
1100 Spaatz St.
Dayton, OH
Visit the world's largest and oldest military aviation museum featuring more than 350 aerospace vehicles and missiles amid more than 19 acres of indoor exhibit space. The exhibits tell the Air Force storyline from the beginning of military flight through current operations in space. The Allan and Malcolm Lockheed and Glenn Martin Space Gallery showcases the Space Shuttle Exhibit featuring NASA’s first Crew Compartment Trainer (CCT-1), a high-fidelity representation of a space shuttle crew station used primarily for on-orbit crew training and engineering evaluations. The gallery also includes a Titan IVB space launch vehicle, Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft, and many other NASA artifacts and a variety of astronaut equipment. A range of satellites and related items showcase the Air Force’s vast reconnaissance, early warning, communications, and other space-based capabilities.
Open In Google Maps2 National Aviation Hall of Fame
1100 Spaatz St.
Dayton, OH
They dreamed the dreams and harnessed the technologies. They created a world where the sky was no longer the limit. The National Aviation Hall of Fame honors them for their service to country, their ingenuity, their courage, and their vision. The stories of the Hall of Fame enshrinees are stories of America: of challenge and failure, of determination and triumph. America’s space program shifted into high gear in the 1950s with the help of men such as Werhner Von Braun who eventually perfected the massive moon-ship known as the “Saturn V,” General Bernard Schriever who invented the concept of “systems management” as he skillfully directed a variety of successful missile programs, and Robert Gilruth who introduced America to its very first astronauts in 1959.
Open In Google Maps3 Armstrong Air & Space Museum
500 Apollo Drive
Wapakoneta, OH
The year was 1969 and the mood was as high as the man on the moon. Neil A. Armstrong had done what no man had done before him. From his hometown of Wapakoneta, across the United States, and around the world, people wanted to honor his feat. The Apollo 11 crew had completed the greatest journey in human history putting men on the moon and setting the course for the future of the nation's space program. The impact of that journey is still felt in Wapakoneta today. Businesses and streets in the community reflect the pride the city has in its native son, the first person to walk on the moon. As space exploration has evolved, so have the exhibits at the Armstrong Air & Space Museum. But the focus has remained the same: to stand not only as a repository of Ohio's aeronautical history and a monument to Ohio's contribution to aviation and space exploration, but also as a tribute to Ohioan Neil Armstrong, whose "one small step for a man" was indeed a "giant leap for mankind."
Open In Google Maps4 NASA Glenn Research Center
21000 Brookpark Rd.
Cleveland, OH
The NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio designs and develops innovative technology to advance NASA’s missions in aeronautics and space exploration. Glenn's main campus, Lewis Field, has world-class facilities including wind tunnels, drop towers, vacuum chambers and a research aircraft hangar. Glenn's Plum Brook Station is located 50 miles west of Cleveland in Sandusky, Ohio, on 6,400 acres of land. Plum Brook Station has large, unique facilities that simulate the environment of space. One of ten NASA centers, Glenn’s work is essential to the agency and integral to the regional economy. More than 3,000 scientists, engineers, technicians, and administrative and support personnel are focused on researching and testing game-changing technology in propulsion, aeronautics, materials and structures, communications, power and energy storage, and biomedical sciences. NASA Glenn is shaping the world of tomorrow by developing technologies that will enable further exploration of the universe and revolutionize air travel. The research center is not open to public tours, but does offer a Visitors Center at Great Lakes Science Center (see site description).
Open In Google Maps5 Great Lakes Science Center
601 Erieside Ave.
Cleveland, OH
Great Lakes Science Center, home of the NASA Glenn Visitor Center, makes science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) come alive for more than 300,000 visitors a year. With hundreds of hands-on exhibits, temporary exhibitions, the Cleveland Clinic DOME Theater, Steamship William G. Mather, daily science demonstrations, seasonal camps and more, guests will always find a reason to Stay Curious!
Open In Google Maps6 John & Annie Glenn Museum
72 W. Main Street
New Concord, OH
The John & Annie Glenn Museum honors the first American to orbit the Earth and his partnership with a remarkable woman. The museum teaches about life during the Great Depression and the Home Front during WWII. The museum is an Ohio History Connection site. Learn about life during the Great Depression and the Home Front during WWII through a captivating living history presentation. Astronaut/Senator John Glenn's boyhood home has been moved back to Main Street in New Concord, Ohio and restored as it was when he lived there until his enlistment in World War II.
Open In Google Maps7 John Glenn Astronomy Park
20531 OH-664 Scenic
Logan, OH
Throughout most of history, humans have been inspired by the wondrous sight of a night sky filled with stars. Our stories and mythologies have been mapped upon the patterns of the stars. Our calendars, festivals, and agriculture have been linked to the movement of the stars. An astronomy park in the Hocking Hills State Park was inspired by our vanishing night sky, due to modern light pollution. The Hocking Hills, in rural southeastern Ohio, is one of the few areas left in the state of Ohio where the night sky can be seen in its near-pristine state. The observatory draws on the countless generations of humans who marked the important changes of the seasons through the motion of the sun and who built great structures, like Stonehenge in England, the Chaco Canyon Kiva in New Mexico or many Hopewell and Fort Ancient Earthworks in Ohio, that commemorated these days. The plaza has been designed to allow the rays of the sun to fall upon a special central point on the first day of each of the four seasons.
Open In Google Maps8 COSI
333 W Broad St.
Columbus, OH
COSI is a nationally esteemed science center that has delighted Central Ohio with all things science for 55 years, inspiring interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) topics and delivering experiential, "hands-on fun" brand of learning to over one million people each year. Ride in a space capsule, test your skills as an “armchair” astronaut, or maneuver a rover through a Martian landscape. Explore the effects of gravity on different planets. Learn about life in orbit inside a mockup of the International Space Station or watch live NASA TV.
Open In Google Maps9 Cincinnati Museum Center
1301 Western Ave.
Cincinnati, OH
Cincinnati Museum Center is a one-of-a-kind, multi-museum complex housed in Union Terminal, a historic Art Deco train station and National Historic Landmark. Museum Center's major offerings at Union Terminal include the Cincinnati History Museum, the Cincinnati History Library and Archives, the Duke Energy Children's Museum, the Museum of Natural History & Science, and the Robert D. Lindner Family OMNIMAX® Theater. Museum Center is the largest cultural institution in the city of Cincinnati, with more than 1.4 million visitors per year. Museum Center’s collection encompasses more than 1.8 million artifacts, artworks, and archives. Ohio is a space state, with a proud aviation heritage. The Neil Armstrong Space Exploration Gallery, presented by the Harold C. Schott Foundation, is a permanent exhibit that celebrates the legacy of the historic Apollo 11 mission. The gallery is centered around a 360-degree immersive theater experience, transporting guests to the excitement and trepidation of the summer of 1969.
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