Summer of Space

The legacy has of Marine Corps Air Station El Toro has endured largely through several aviation-related art exhibitions displayed in the Palm Court Arts Complex, which is part of the Orange County Great Park, where the marine base once stood.

Scientists with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have performed long-distance tinkering on many projects, helping to extend the life of those probes and satellites many times beyond their original scheduled missions.

Here’s a quick tour of some of SoCal’s aviation museums and their unique offerings.

The longstanding relationship between Griffith Observatory and the Los Angeles Astronomical Society enables Angelenos of all walks of life to enjoy astronomy. 

The Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, operated by The Mars Society and staffed by dedicated astronaut-volunteers, is dedicated to examining how humans may explore Mars. 

Unknown to many, Snoopy has been working with NASA since the late 1950s, even before man first stepped on the moon. Space, as it turns out, is the final frontier — even for beagles.

Even though it's long been studied, visited by twelve astronauts and several robots, the moon remains a source of mystery. 

In 1970, President Richard Nixon gave Apollo 11 lunar samples to 135 friendly countries and to every U.S. state and territory. 49 years later, many of those samples are unaccounted for.