The main building houses hundreds of space-related artefacts, including bits of real moon rock and the remains of a space monkey, but luckily the best sights are too large to squeeze inside the building and have to be displayed outside¹.

Welcoming you to the centre is an A-12 Blackbird which, as I’m sure you know, isn’t a spacecraft, it’s a plane. But, it’s a very cool plane, so we’ll let them off².

Also noticeable from the entrance is the massive Saturn V, the rocket design that launched NASA’s Apollo and Skylab missions.

However, like the Blackbird, this isn’t a spacecraft; it’s just a full-size mock-up produced especially for the park.

Hoping to actually see some real space things, we come to another Saturn V, this time lying down.

Now this is (sort of) the real deal. Although all three stages come from separate test models not destined for flight, it does have all the inner workings and has thus been awarded the prestigious status of a US national monument.

Alongside Saturn V stands a smaller rocket, Saturn I, which was NASA’s first dedicated “space launcher”.

Again, this particular rocket was never launched, and like the Saturn V is actually a mish-mash of test models. Someone who clearly knows too much about space rockets complains that the booster is even painted incorrectly: “the roll pattern on the fins is also off, as the black-white boundary should be horizontal to the ground an[d] bisecting the root edge of the fins.” Of course we all noticed that glaring error.

Around the other side of the building we find the only “full stack” space shuttle display in the US.

The empty steel model, known as “Pathfinder”, was constructed as an simple weight for testing cranes and other support equipment. It was given the NASA livery in Japan, where it spent some time at the “Great Space Shuttle Exposition” of 1984.

It then returned to America to where we see it now, sitting atop two prototype booster casings which never went into production.

So that was the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, where we can see precisely zero rockets that have ever actually been into space!

Locations: Alabama / Categories: Aircraft, Spacecraft

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What’s even more interesting though, is that this update includes a lot of the places in-between places – highways coast-to-coast are now on Street View, and the coverage in the US has actually been doubled.

This means that some of Google Sightseeing’s previously posted sights, like The Devil’s Tower are now visible in Street View for the first time.

While the update includes places in Maine, West Virginia, North Dakota and South Dakota, a full list of the updates hasn’t yet been compiled as far as I can tell.¹

With all this new coverage, perhaps you’ll be the person to stumble across the next street fight, house on fire, or epic bike-related fail – so get submitting your street view discoveries now!

Locations: Alabama, Maine, North Korea, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, Wyoming / Categories: Natural Landmarks, Street Views

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With a driveway lined with trees casting shadows to portray the frets on the guitar neck, terraced gardens shaped like the body of a guitar, and a main residence larger than many shopping malls, one could easily imagine this being the country hideaway of somebody living off the proceeds of a few number one albums.

However, it wasn’t dreamt up by some megalomaniac rock star on an acid trip, but rather by the former COO of a scandal-plagued healthcare company. Because of his financial problems, Larry House was forced to sell the property in 2003 at a considerable loss, before construction was even finished.

Let’s look at the numbers:

• An estimated $26 million to build the estate;
• 4,645 square metres (50,000 square feet) of living space;
• 27 acres of land;
• 21 bedrooms and 22 bathrooms;
• a 13-car garage;
• a 25-seat home theatre;
• a wine cellar for 2,000 bottles;
• and despite the cost of construction and contents (including many antiques), it sold at auction for just under $4million.

A gallery of the buildings and grounds can be found here, and if this is too lavish for your budget, you could just go with a guitar shaped pool, as previously featured on Google Sightseeing.

Locations: Alabama / Categories: Buildings, Large Type

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There’s smaller scale copies of Ms. Liberty all over the place including France’s very own copy which stands facing West to her larger sister.

The suburb of Mountain Brook, Alabama has a 1/5 size Statue of Liberty, whose flame is actually lit with Alabama natural gas.

And there’s a copy of everything in Las Vegas, so of course they’ve got a 1/2 size Liberty Statue outside the New York, New York Casino.

More replicas, and a long list of movie appearances on Wikipedia.

Locations: Alabama, France, Nevada, New York / Categories: Monuments

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On further investigation I found another one to the west, and after having a closer look in Google Earth, I now believe these are barges being pushed along the thin waterways by small tug-type boats. Does anyone know what they’re transporting?

Thanks to Adam Fannin.

Locations: Alabama / Categories: Watercraft

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The worst affected states, by this, the third most intense system to strike the United States in recorded history, are Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. It is believed that Katrina is, (in monetary terms) the most costly hurricane to affect the USA, and sadly may yet also become the most costly in terms of human lives.

For more information about these events, I recommend the Wikipedia page on Hurricane Katrina, which is updated continually as information becomes available.

Locations: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi / Categories: Bridges, Stadiums and Sport

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