The Virginia Air and Space Center
WHERE: 600 Settlers Landing Road, Hampton, Virginia
WHEN: Open 10 a.m. on weekdays, 12 p.m. on weekends, Closed 5 p.m.
WHAT: Planes, planets, and space exploration
The Virginia Air and Space Center is a thrilling and imaginative museum devoted especially to space exploration. If you have not yet discovered the thrill of space and flight, this museum will get you started. Their permanent exhibits include the Adventures in Flight gallery where you can walk on the wing of a plane, sit in a cock-pit, view all kinds of amazing aircraft, or even stay on ground and become an air traffic controller. Space Quest is a hands-on exhibit showcasing our solar system and space exploration. Here you can stand within a scaled replica of our solar system with Jupiter, for instance, suspended above you and weighing 750 pounds. At this scale, earth is merely the size of a soccer ball. Also in this gallery you can touch samples of the kinds of materials found throughout our solar system on other planets. Other exhibits here focus on Mars, the moon, space stations, and space exploration through time. With all of these, so many more exhibits, and temporary ones as well, the Virginia Air and Space Center is a thrilling education on the study of space.
