A Visit To The National Museum Of Nuclear Science And History

I had never visited The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, but had a bit of time, so I went.

What an awesome place! Especially when I was young, I paid very close attention to the Space Race and strategic armaments, so this place was one immense nostalgic callback to what mattered a lot when I was growing up.

Carbon, the most-versatile of elements! (Mendeleev Periodic Table of the Elements embedded in the floor of the museum).

Little Boy and Fat Man.

Fat Man.

Gadget (Trinity Site).

Holy crap!  Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicles (MIRVs), the highly-destructive payload of what appears to be a Titan II missile!  Top secret stuff!

Close-up of the MIRVs.

Titan III?

Miss Atomic Bomb.

Fail-Safe: What a great movie!

Outside the museum, they have what they call Heritage Park, where they keep the really impressive stuff.  Here is my favorite from childhood, the B-52 strategic bomber.  I remember one day, we had one of these circling all around the North Valley, to what purpose I could only imagine.

B-47 bomber.

Peacekeeper MX warhead.

Thor, the IRBM that President Kennedy had already posted in Turkey and which he used to menace the Soviets during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

Titan II missile.

Jupiter.  Awesome!

First generation Minuteman missile.

Titan II engines.  I still remember fourth grade, and watching the shutdown of Gemini 6's engines on TV during their aborted first attempt at launch - in 1966?

Titan II missile - the Martin Marietta workhorse of the Space Age!  Built just outside Columbine, CO.

Matador missile?

MK-17 thermonuclear (hydrogen) bomb.

B-52 strategic bomber.

MK-53 thermonuclear (hydrogen) bomb.

B-29 Stratofortress, akin to the Enola Gay (Hiroshima) and Bock's Car (Nagasaki).

One massive warhead!

Without You, There Is No Security.

Help Us - Be Secure.

If You Want To Fight!  Join The Marines.