Space Murals Museum
Visited
2017.11.10
Las Cruces, New Mexico
Free to the public and self-described as “The People’s Museum,” I have to say that Space Murals was a place I felt right at home. This isn’t your typical space museum. What they have is more of a collection of NASA knick-knacks and ephemera — very much the sorts of things that I collect — and donated artifacts that couldn’t find a home in more prestigous museums.
If you’re wondering about the odd title, the museum gets its name from the 1,200,000 gallon water tank that sits behind it, which is adorned with large murals that are visible from the adjacent highway, depicting “the progress of the U.S. Space program from its beginning until the fatal accident of the Space Shuttle Challenger.”
Sadly, they are suffering from some hard times. Apparently I was the only person that had even come in that day, and one of only three people that had been in so far that week. Despite the presence of NASA facilities just up the road, it seems the museum was becoming a forgotten or neglected landmark.
