There are many exciting space museums around the world, and we tried to pick only 10 of them without repeating the country of their location. If your favorite museum is not here, don’t be mad, it was tough to pick only 10. We are going to start with the museums in Europe.

1 - Technik Museum Speyer, Speyer, Germany

The museum, together with Space Consult, has a Space Flight collection, which claims to be, the largest Space exhibition in Europe. The documentation goes from the beginnings of space flight history in the 60s to the ISS (international space station). The main attraction is the Space shuttle BURAN from Russia, very ambitious with 36m length, 16m height, and about 80 tons of weight. Visitor can also see the prototype OK-Gli, which was built in 1984 and from that year to 1989 completed 25 atmospheric flights being critical for the success of the orbital flight of a BURAN shuttle in 1988. With the end of the Soviet Union, the developments stopped, and the program was discontinued in 1993.

The museum also counts with the training module of the space laboratory (SpaceLab), and real size model of the research module Columbus, as well as, an original landing capsule of the Soyuz TM-19, and other attractions, including a moon themed expansion.

The museum also portraits areas such as aviation, vintage cars, fire engines, and others, and you can see more on their website.

2 - Cité de l'espace, Toulouse, France

This museum documents the history of aeronautics in a very interactive way, counting with 5 hectares garden area and 2,500m² of hand-on exhibits. Among the experiences offered, there is a moon-running simulator to test your tolerance for space travel, a planetarium, and an observatory. The full-scale replicas bring to life icons of the space history, such as Mir space station, Ariane 5 space rocket, and Soyuz modules.

A new exhibit was built to celebrate the 50 years of Apollo 11, Moon: Episode II, which approaches NASA’s challenges to put the first man on the moon (including lack of air, exposure to cosmic radiation, and gravity six times lower than on earth). Besides information about space flights, the museum also will teach you how to predict the weather, the interactive planetarium equipped with a hemispherical screen 600 square meters.

The city of Toulouse is significant to France’s aerospace industry, developing many aircraft (Concorde and the 555-seat Airbus A380) as well as components for international space programs. To know more, visit their website.

3 - Space Expo, Noordwijk, Netherlands

Not your everyday observatory or planetarium museum, this is the visitor center of ESTEC (European Space Technology and Research Center).

Besides exploring the museum and learning about gravity, black hole, satellites, space exploration, and life in the ISS (International Space Station), you can also enjoy a ride on a Space Shuttle and visit the European Space Agency’s development and testing center. The place where satellites are tested before launch, and tours there are never the same, depends on current projects.

You can also check solar cells of the Hubble space telescope, a real moonstone, and the Soyuz capsule that brought the Dutch astronaut André Kuipers back to earth. You can even rent a spacesuit. Or even better rent a Multi-axis Simulator Trainer (MST), or in other words, an astronaut trainer to deal with disorientation. The options go beyond to know more visit their website.

4 - National Space Centre, Leicester, UK

The building is a semi-transparent tower designed specially to fit its largest artifacts, such as Blue Streak and Thor Able Rockets. The museum claims to be the only one to have upright space rockets indoors. In partnership with the University of Leicester, the center features space science, astronomy, and cosmology fields.

Besides the Cité de l’espace, and Smithsonian Institution, the museum has the third of the three Soyuz spacecraft in the West, an Apollo Lunar Lander, and a real moon rock.

In the galleries: Into Space, Space Oddities, Orbiting Earth, The Solar System, The Universe, The Planetarium, and Tranquility Base, they also will learn about the impact of an asteroid in the Near Earth Objects Information Centre, Gagarin (the first man in space) experience, the Big Bang, and many other subjects. And that is not all it is possible to walk through a mock-up of the Columbus Module from the International Space Station, as well as enter the Weather Pod, become a trainee astronaut on a lunar base in the year 2025. You can also see some of their collection online.

5 - Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics, Moscow, Russia

Established in the lower part of the Monument to the Conquerors of Space, the museum has 4500 m2 of permanent showrooms. It initially focused on the Soviet space program, after its renovation, the museum tripled its size and included sections dedicated to space programs worldwide.

With a collection of 98000 items, including 35000 rare ones, the museum will take its visitors to an exploration of the history of flight, astronomy, space exploration and tech, and space in the arts.

The visitor will acquire knowledge about Gagarin, Sergey Korolev, Sputnik, Soyuz, first spacewalks, and international space research programs. Visitors will also encounter some of the first spacesuits, spacecraft for Moon exploration, and exploration of other planets of the solar system, and even stuffed Belka and Strelka (space dogs). Some exhibits are interactive, such as a walk-in Mir Space Station’s main module.

Connected to the metro by the sculpture-lined Cosmonauts Alley, the museum is located nearby Sergey Korolev Memorial House, former home of the Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer. He played an essential role during the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. The museum also offers a virtual tour.

With so many cool space museums around the world, our trip doesn’t end here. We have chosen 5 more museums, this time outside of Europe. Don’t miss our next post.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, and don’t miss the second part of this post.

Article written by Juliane Verissímo - Marketing Department of VisionSpace

10 Cool Space Museums Around the World - Part 1 (Europe)

1 - Technik Museum Speyer, Speyer, Germany

2 - Cité de l'espace, Toulouse, France

3 - Space Expo, Noordwijk, Netherlands

4 - National Space Centre, Leicester, UK

5 - Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics, Moscow, Russia