HYANNIS—Airplane replicas, vintage cockpits, and a flight simulator are among the collection of aerospace artifacts on view at the reopened Massachusetts Air and Space Museum.
The museum, which closed its original location near Cape Cod Gateway Airport in February, reopened this month on Main Street. The exhibits showcase the state's contributions to aerospace and features the people behind those accomplishments, including Amelia Earhart, whose first flight across the Atlantic departed from Boston.
Boston native Stephanie Wilson will be the first woman and the first person of color to travel to the moon as part of NASA's Artemis program; in 1996 she became the second Black woman in space. Story Musgrave of Stockbridge is the only astronaut to have flown aboard all five Space Shuttles.
Their stories join the museum's expanding collection, as it works to add pieces related to astronomy and drones.
"What we're looking for is not the pieces so much as the stories," the museum's interim executive director, Keith Young, told CAI during a private museum tour. "We can get lots of stuff. But we want artifacts that have a great story."
Renovations are underway to a multipurpose room for community events. A grand opening is planned for January.
The Massachusetts Air and Space Museum, 434 Main St., is open Thursdays through Saturdays, 10:00 to 4:00.
