my local museum is, as I lovingly call it, "a trash dump from the eastern test range in a 'one man's trash' way."
I also can't help but describe it, if I want to be kinder and do it with heart, as telling the human story of our space program, in a down to earth way that the Smithsonian or the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex cannot.
every artifact here was either donated by former employees or salvaged by them when the range wanted them gone by any means necessary.
in this tiny building are pieces of the space shuttle, contractor models, an entire aisle of Shuttle firing room consoles, the entire console bank from Launch Complex 36's days supporting Atlas and Atlas Centaur, the last electromechanical launch sequencer (paired with the LC36 consoles, and restored if not to fully functional condition, at least display-operational, by the people who built and maintained them), so many models built by KSCs long lost model shop to communicate to senators and stakeholders what they would be supporting, and so much absolute ephemera that otherwise would likely be lost forever. and here, it gets to fill in the gaps in the grand story of American spaceflight.
and these fuckin pliers almost symbolize that better than anything else. In the Apollo days, someone saw a need. In an emergency, it was quicker to just Cut the hoses connecting the astronauts suits into the spacecraft than it would have been to unhook them. So maybe they went to the local hardware store, or just the tool shed on base, who knows where, got the most generic set of wirecutters imaginable, and welded a cutting blade onto them for this purpose.
it is such a small, clear, self contained story, and it's just one of many that fill this old buildings walls.
go to your local museum. buy a membership, even if you don't think you're gonna visit much at all, because when you do go, you'll hear a story about your part of the world that you had never heard, something that makes your connection to where you live even richer.
the complex 36 consoles
the rocket engines displayed outside
these are things that would be lost to history at worst, or impossible to photograph this closely and lovingly at best, if this museum didn't exist.
did you know that in the 1980s, NASA and the eastern range, after decades of eminent domain swallowing up the Cape and Merritt Island, were about to close Playalinda Beach for good, leaving Titusville and its adjoining communities the only coastal towns in Florida without an ocean beach?
did you know that the locals spent years campaigning and letter writing and getting in the papers to rail against this, and that their dedication is the only reason NASA was made to change course?
there were bumper stickers. in that museum, there are like four or five binders of newspapers clippings detailing this whole saga.
there is also one of the few aerial photos of one of the communities that were eminent domained hung on the wall in there. it was rescued from a bank here that closed.
and there's stuff about north brevards citrus history, about why you see the name Parrish everywhere, and so much more, it's an invaluable resource for learning about where i live now.
and it almost closed because of covid, and then because one of the society members + volunteers passed away from covid shortly after they reopened.
these are important resources in your community. treasure them.
