Space race connections on display at planetarium

This spacesuit was used by astronaut Gus Grissom while training for his Mercury mission. PHOTOS BY Erin Sturguess

Located in Forest Park, the James S. McDonnell Planetarium, with its space-age design, harkens back to the era when man first left Earth. It is also named after St. Louis’ own aviation pioneer and founder of McDonnell Aircraft, which supplied the hardware that put Americans into space in the early 1960s.
The items on display there tell the story of this era. The planetarium is wrapping up a redesign of their exhibits aimed at showcasing St. Louis’ connection to the space race. While providing a look back, the exhibits also provide a look into the future of space exploration.
“There are a couple of reasons why we did this. One was that last year was the 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing … And the other is that we have a really strong connection, through McDonnell/Douglass and Boeing, with the space program here in St. Louis,” John Lakey, assistant director at the James S. McDonnell Planetarium, said.
Part of that connection is that the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft used in the early phases of the American space program were manufactured here. On display in the lobby of the planetarium is an example of each capsule.
“It’s awesome to have the actual, real spacecraft. Even though these two didn’t fly, to have the real artifacts means a lot,” Lakey said.
They are accompanied by one of astronaut Gus Grissom’s Mercury space suits, a wide variety of space memorabilia and toys, and a video of President Kennedy visiting the St. Louis McDonnell plant.
Highlighting the local connection is an exhibit adjacent to the capsule display, which contains items on loan from the James S. McDonnell Prologue Room at Boeing’s St. Louis headquarters. The Prologue room highlights the achievements of McDonnell Douglas, especially its part during the space race.“We kind of wanted to mirror that here in a smaller way, so we have a lot of collection items from the Boeing Corporation,” Lakey said. The collection on display includes a number of items, such as a workbench used by designers at McDonnell while they were developing spacecraft.Beyond the planetarium’s lobby there are other exhibits detailing the space race, from the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of Sputnik to the 1975 Apollo/Soyuz mission, during which Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts met in orbit for the first time.Continuing through takes one to a series of displays devoted to the Space Shuttle and private enterprise’s first steps into space, which could be the future of space exploration.
Just as St. Louis was home to the first generation of space pioneers, it became the home to a new generation when the Ansari X-Prize was headquarted here. In the face of mounting budget concerns, NASA may have to turn to private enterprise to get astronauts into orbit.
“I personally think it is a good thing for private enterprise to develop space models, at least models to get into space,” Lakey said. He also supported the use of unmanned probes in exploring the solar system.
“The unmanned missions can teach us a lot … With stuff like that, it is just going to make it that much better for what we can learn about our own solar system,” Lakey said.
Aside from the exhibits, the planetarium has more to offer visitors. Public telescope viewings are held on the first Friday of every month along with a show called “The Sky Tonight,” in which visitors can see a projection of the night sky and have various objects pointed out to them. Guest lectures are also booked from time to time. For more information on upcoming events at the Planetarium, visit their Web site at slsc.org.