Tom Feeney: “earlier I shamelessly invited people to come and experience the Daytona 500. While they are there, they may want to come…”

“earlier I shamelessly invited people to come and experience the Daytona 500. While they are there, they may want to come visit a museum not far from the Daytona 500. Launch Complex 26, where Explorer I was launched, now houses the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Museum. If you visit, you can tour the blockhouse from which the Explorer I was launched, see launch control equipment from that era and walk on the launch pad. Just a few hundred yards away is Launch Pad 5 where America's first astronaut, Alan Shepherd, was launched into space. Emily Perry serves as the museum's curator. Sixty volunteers, led by Gary Harris, guide these tours. Most of these volunteers are veterans of America's space program, including some from the Explorer I era. Their stories provide a window into this fascinating past. Tours begin from the Kennedy Space Center's Visitors Complex and operate 7 days a week. We have talked about how Explorer I began America's journey as a spacefaring people. If you visit the Space and Missile Museum, you can see and touch where that journey began.”