Museum of Space History

60 miles north east of Las Cruces is the Museum of Space History in Alamogordo New Mexico. White Sands Missile range and Holloman Airforce Base are next door to Alamogordo. After the end of WWII the German rocket technology and most of their scientists were brought here to continue their work on developing rockets. They developed more and more advanced rockets which eventually lead to landing on the moon and the current space shuttles.

The outdoor displays show a lot of the rockets and missiles that were developed over the years. Most were used for atmospheric tests but, being the military, a number developed into anti-aircraft missiles. The short fat rocket to the right was used to test the escape pod on the top of the Saturn V rockets without having to use a Saturn V which was 10 times larger.
This is one of the anti-aircraft missiles. It was 2 stage and was towed behind a truck and used to protect military targets from air attack. All of the missiles like this one were developed and tested at the White Sands Missile Range nearby.

This sled was mounted on tracks over a mile long and when the rockets on the back were fired it would go over 600 MPH before stopping. A man rode on the seat and was used to test how much G force a person could take. After one ride his head was all bruised and his eyes were full of blood. Safety harness testing on this sled led to the design of seatbelts for cars.

Inside the building were a number of displays having to do with space. A lot of the early satellites like Sputnik 1 and this one used to test the damage caused by micro meteorites are displayed.

This simulator lets you try to land the space shuttle from 10,000 feet which is about 1 minute of flight. On my first try I ran out of runway but, due to my superior flying skills, my second attempt was right on the money so I quit while I was ahead. The guy behind me gave up after crashing 4 times so it wasn't that easy.