Novato, California: The Space Station Museum (In Transition)

Small museum exhibited space exploration items from the Soviet and American NASA programs: a Soyuz hatch, space shuttle astronaut suit, etc. Closed for move elsewhere, place and date currently unknown.

The Space Station Museum has temporarily configured itself to emit signals of seasonal cheer. Stop in during the holidays and check out the NASA-themed Christmas Tree (which lights up if you speak a certain quote from "The Right Stuff"), the collection of space ornaments, and the nutcracker astronaut. The collection display fills two side-by-side store spaces in the Pacheco Shopping Plaza, staffed by knowledgeable volunteers. While some of the most precious spacesuit items can't be touched (such as a Russian cosmonaut pressure suit and cosmo-diaper), several pieces are available for tactual exploration, and there are a number of mannequins and photo cutouts for photo ops.

The Lunar Module replica is 9/10ths scale, and has been augmented with Christmas stockings and a wreath. The Lunar Rover replica is ready to transport sacks of presents.

At its annual one-day Space Fest, the Space Station Museum unveiled its newest acquisition -- a 90% scale replica Lunar Excursion Module. In order to display it indoors, the owners of the shopping plaza housing the museum agreed to help it expand into a vacant adjacent store.

Outside in Pacheco Plaza, crowds gathered to meet a couple of real astronauts, climb in a jet pilot trainer from the USS Hornet, and safely gaze at the sun through a telescope.

The free museum displays a unique collection of artifacts from both the US and Russian space programs.