If you near
Huntsville, AL, then you might want to check out the US Space and Rocket Center. It's located on I-565 North, on the right. You can't miss it as it's got an
SR-71 Blackbird outside, and there is that big
Saturn V standing tall and proud. Anyway, the Rocket Center is also home to the Alabama division of
Space Camp, which I hear is really fun. Inside the center, there's all kinds of neato space stuff. Part of SkyLab, a couple of the old capsules, pieces of engines and thrusters, various moon rocks and otherworldly treasures. They show videos of the beginnings of modern rocketry, on our favorite transplanted kraut Dr.
Wernher Von Braun, on how our space program went from little more than
USAF tests to the moon in a little over ten years, and so on. And that's just one part! There's also an
IMAX theater, a
centrifuge and a "moonwalk" ride that helps demonstrate what it's like to break through the atmosphere and actually walk in lesser gravity, mockups (and real restored jobs too!) of space vehicles from back in the day...All in all, it's a lot of really neat space related stuff that you won't get to see other places
I've been to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. and their space stuff wasn't anything compared to what's in Huntsville.
I dug the Space and Rocket Center just because I'm slightly geeked about space and all that goes along with it, and it's one of the very few truly unique places to visit that exist around where I live. There is a price of admission (which I presently forget), but I believe it was well worth the cost just to see all the ultra badass,
real space stuff. This is something I truly support my tax dollars paying for. ;)
I would gladly provide a link to the Rocket Center's home page, but I cannot find the "real" homepage online, so I've provided links to what I did find: http://www.ussrc.com/main.htm and http://www.spacecamp.com/museum/.