The NASA Ames Visitor Center is a

visitor center A visitor center or centre (see American and British English spelling differences), visitor information center or tourist information centre is a physical location that provides information to tourists. Types A visitor center may be a Civic c ...

at the entrance of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Ames Research Center The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...

Moffett Field, California Moffett Federal Airfield , also known as Moffett Field, is a joint civil-military airport located in an unincorporated part of Santa Clara County, California, United States, between northern Mountain View and northern Sunnyvale. On November ...

. The center has the following exhibits: * The

Mercury-Redstone 1A Mercury- Redstone 1A (MR-1A) was launched on December 19, 1960 from LC-5 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The mission objectives of this uncrewed suborbital flight were to qualify the spacecraft for space flight and qualify the system for an upcomin ...

capsule, launched in 1960 in a

suborbital flight A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the surface of the primary (astronomy), gravitating body from which it was launched. Hence, it will not complete one orbital ...

, which achieved an altitude of 130.7 miles. * A high-resolution immersive theater with a 14-foot tall and 36-foot wide screen. The theater sometimes shows movies with footage from NASA's explorations of Mars and the planets, and about the contributions of the scientists at the NASA Ames Research Center. * A model of the

SOFIA Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

aircraft, designed for

infrared astronomy Infrared astronomy is a sub-discipline of astronomy which specializes in the astronomical observation, observation and analysis of astronomical objects using infrared (IR) radiation. The wavelength of infrared light ranges from 0.75 to 300 microm ...

observations in the

stratosphere The stratosphere () is the second-lowest layer of the atmosphere of Earth, located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere. The stratosphere is composed of stratified temperature zones, with the warmer layers of air located higher ...

. * A large globe of the planet

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

. The gift shop sells space and NASA-related memorabilia. The hours are Monday to Friday, 10 AM to 6 PM, and 10 AM to 5 PM on weekends. It is closed for Federal Holidays.

Gallery

File:Mercury Spacecraft at NASA Ames.JPG, The

capsule File:NASA Ames Visitor Center Immersive Theater.JPG, Immersive theater File:NASA Ames Visitor Center SOFIA telescope illustration.JPG,

aircraft model

References

{{authority control Ames Research Center Tourist attractions in San Jose, California Visitor centers in the United States Museums in Santa Clara County, California Aerospace museums in California Science museums in California NASA visitor centers