PRD-027 · /science visit-list — space sites to visit (museums + active facility tours + launch sites)

Status · Draft (prep for v0.8) Date · 2026-06-09 Owner · Marko Closes into · GH epic v0.8 content track (#313 sibling); per-slice PRs Builds on · PRD-008 (/science editorial structure) · existing /science/reading-list (#128) + /science/watch-list (#129) routes

Why this is a PRD. Marko's idea (2026-06-09): every spacecraft, launcher, capsule, suit, or instrument we render in /fleet has a physical analogue somewhere — restored, displayed, commemorated, or actively operated and open to public visit. Curious learners + visitors should be able to discover where on Earth they can stand next to an Apollo command module, walk under a Saturn V, see the only flight-tested Buran shell, watch a Discovery shuttle in flight configuration, tour JPL's spacecraft assembly facility, sit in ESOC's mission-control gallery during a flyby, or stand at Kourou's launch viewing area for an Ariane 6 lift-off. Orrery already has /science/reading-list ("what to read") and /science/watch-list ("what to watch") — this PRD adds /science/visit-list ("what to visit") as the third sibling. Scope: traditional museums with restored hardware + active space-facility visitor centers + operational launch site viewing experiences — all three classes of "where to physically encounter space" are on the same list because that's how a curious visitor thinks about a trip. Global representation per the project memory "Orrery celebrates global space programs, not just NASA". Same hardcoded-curation shape as the sibling routes; no JSON + i18n overlay overhead.

What

A new /science/visit-list route at src/routes/science/visit-list/+page.svelte. Same shape as reading-list and watch-list (hardcoded TS array of entries, PR-edited). Curated for iconic restored hardware · global geographic spread · diversity of agencies + eras. Initial set: 12–15 museums across 5+ continents.

Each entry surfaces: museum name, city + country, brief description (what makes it visit-worthy), key on-display exhibits cross-linked to existing /fleet entries where applicable, official website link, optional cover image.

Curated set (~18, globally balanced)

Coverage target: every continent with a public space museum + ≥ 1 entry per major space-faring nation. The first cut skewed USA-heavy (6 of 17); the revised cut keeps the USA's most-iconic exhibits while adding Canada, Australia, UAE entries so the global representation matches the project memory "Orrery celebrates global space programs, not just NASA".

USA (5):

Entry	City	Key exhibits
Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum + Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center	Washington DC + Chantilly VA	Apollo 11 CM Columbia, Discovery shuttle, SpaceShipOne, Skylab backup, Mariner 2 backup. (Marko visited 2016 + 2017.)
Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex	Florida	Atlantis shuttle (mounted as in flight), Saturn V, Apollo CMs, Astrovan
Space Center Houston	Texas	Saturn V (Rocket Park), Apollo CMs, lunar samples, Mission Control restoration
California Science Center	Los Angeles	Endeavour shuttle (Endeavour Pavilion under construction with external tank ET-94 + SRBs)
San Diego Air & Space Museum	San Diego CA	Apollo 9 CM "Gumdrop", Mercury capsule mock-up, Gemini exhibits, GPS heritage gallery. (Marko visited 2022.)

(Intrepid Enterprise + US Space & Rocket Center moved to optional candidates — keep cut tighter for global balance; restore if Marko wants Enterprise specifically.)

Russia (2–3):

Entry	City	Key exhibits
Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics	Moscow	Vostok-1 backup, Lunokhod-1 mock-up, Mir core mockup, Sputnik, Belka + Strelka
Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics	Kaluga	Tsiolkovsky's workshop, Vostok backup, Soyuz, Buran-class mockup
Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre Museum	Star City	Training hardware, Mir trainer, Soyuz simulators — restricted access, advance permission required

Europe (7):

Entry	City	Key exhibits
Technik Museum Speyer	Germany	Buran OK-GLI (BTS-002) — the only flight-tested Buran shell publicly displayed
Deutsches Museum	Munich, Germany	National science + technology museum; space exhibits include astronaut equipment, satellite mock-ups, Apollo / Soyuz artefacts. (Marko visited 2025.)
Cité de l'espace	Toulouse FR	Soyuz capsule, Mir module mock-up, Ariane 5 full-scale, Mars surface diorama
Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace	Paris-Le Bourget, France	France's national aerospace museum; Ariane 1 + Ariane 5 full-scale, Soyuz capsule, lunar samples loan, Concorde. (Marko visited 2023.)
National Space Centre	Leicester UK	Soyuz, Thor-Able, Beagle 2 replica, Sputnik replicas
Euro Space Center	Belgium	Apollo, Soyuz, ESA training centre
ESA Space Expo	Noordwijk, Netherlands	ESA's official visitor centre at ESTEC; Columbus / MIR module mock-ups, Mars rover Bruno (ExoMars test rover), Ariane scale models. (Marko visited 2010.)

Asia (4):

Entry	City	Key exhibits
China Science and Technology Museum	Beijing	Long March mock-ups, Shenzhou models, Chang'e mock-ups
Wenchang Aerospace Museum	Hainan, China	Long March exhibits adjacent to active launch site
Miraikan (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation)	Tokyo, Japan	H-II launcher model, HTV, JAXA mission exhibits, astrobiology + ISS module
Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre / ISRO Space Museum	Thiruvananthapuram, India	PSLV / SLV models, Aryabhata mock-up, satellite display

Australia + Canada + UAE (3):

Entry	City	Key exhibits
Canada Aviation and Space Museum	Ottawa, Canada	Canadarm articulating model, RADARSAT mock-ups, Avro Arrow space-pioneer exhibits, Mercury / Apollo replicas
Powerhouse Museum	Sydney, Australia	Apollo 11 Parkes-comms recreation, Strap-Down Inertial Sensor (SDIS), Australian space-history collection
Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre Visitor Complex	Dubai, UAE	Hope orbiter (EMM) mock-up, Rashid-1 lunar rover backup, Emirates Mars Mission exhibits

Class 2: Active space-facility visitor centers + tours

These aren't museums per se — they're operational space facilities (mission-control centers, spacecraft-assembly labs, research campuses) that open part of the site to public visitors. Visit experience is partly "see real working space infrastructure" and partly "exhibits + history walls." ESA Space Expo at ESTEC (already listed under Europe museums) is the same model.

Entry	City	What you see
JPL — Jet Propulsion Laboratory	Pasadena CA, USA	Public tours by reservation; von Karman Auditorium gallery with full-scale Voyager / Galileo / Cassini / Mars rovers; spacecraft assembly clean rooms visible from gallery viewing windows
ESOC — European Space Operations Centre	Darmstadt, Germany	ESA's mission-control HQ; Open House days + occasional event tours; live mission-control galleries (Mars Express, JUICE, BepiColombo, etc.)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Visitor Center	Greenbelt MD, USA	Free onsite visitor center adjacent to Hubble Operations + Webb integration heritage; Apollo-era artefacts, Earth-science satellite exhibits
INFINITY Science Center (NASA Stennis Space Center)	Pearlington MS, USA	NASA's official Stennis visitor center; SSME / RS-25 engine tests heritage; F-1 + J-2 engines on display; live test-stand viewing on test days

Class 3: Active launch site viewing + tours

Operating launch sites that publicly accommodate visitors for site tours and (most importantly) on-launch viewing. Some require booking through national agencies; some are casual viewing accessible to anyone within a road-trip drive.

Entry	City / region	What you can do
Centre Spatial Guyanais — Kourou	French Guiana	ESA / Arianespace flagship launch site; site tours (Jupiter control room, Ariane integration hall, launch pad viewing); on-launch viewing at Toucan / Colibri sites by reservation
Tanegashima Space Center	Tanegashima Island, Japan	JAXA's primary launch site; on-site visitor museum, rocket gallery, H-IIA / H3 launch viewing from designated public areas
Baikonur Cosmodrome tours	Baikonur, Kazakhstan	Historic Soviet / Russian launch facility; packaged multi-day tours of Site 1/5 (Gagarin's Start), Buran hangars, Energia stand, Soyuz launch viewing on rare commercial flights
SDSC SHAR — Sriharikota	Andhra Pradesh, India	ISRO's primary launch site; viewing gallery accommodates ~5,000 visitors per launch for PSLV / GSLV / LVM3 lift-offs; advance booking required

(KSC Visitor Complex + Space Center Houston + Wenchang Aerospace Museum already fit this class but are listed under museums because that's how they're more commonly known. Cross-classification noted; no duplicate entries.)

Geographic + nation coverage check (post-rebalance + airandspacehistory.com cross-ref + onsite-visits expansion):

• Total cut: ~29 entries — 21 museums (Class 1) + 4 active facility tours (Class 2) + 4 launch site visits (Class 3).
• Continents: NA (USA × 7 — 5 museums + JPL + Goddard + Stennis, Canada × 1), SA (Kourou-French-Guiana × 1), EU (Germany × 2, France × 2 + ESOC Darmstadt, UK × 1, Belgium × 1, Netherlands × 1), Asia (China × 2, Japan × 1 + Tanegashima, India × 1 + Sriharikota, UAE × 1), Eurasia / Russia (3 + Baikonur tours), Australia (1). All inhabited continents covered.
• Space-faring nations covered (including active-facility classes): USA, Russia, Germany, France, UK, Belgium, Netherlands, China, Japan, India, Canada, Australia, UAE, Kazakhstan (Baikonur tours). 14 nations / territories.
• USA share: 7 of 29 = 24% (held — non-USA additions in Class 2 + 3 grew faster).
• Marko's own visited list (airandspacehistory.com) cross-referenced: 7 of his 9 visited museums now in the cut (the 2 aviation-primary ones — Central Air Force Museum Monino, IWM Duxford — were excluded since neither holds notable space items, per Marko's call). Also addressed: California Science Center (Endeavour) and Technik Museum Speyer (Buran OK-GLI) confirmed present in cut.
• Honest gap: South America outside Kourou has no flagship space-history museum on the cut; Africa has none. Acknowledged in "out of scope" rather than padded.

Optional candidates for trimming or expanding the cut: Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum (NYC, Enterprise shuttle), US Space & Rocket Center (Huntsville, Saturn V horizontal), Korea Aerospace Research Institute museum (Daejeon), Memorial Aeroespacial Brasileiro (São José dos Campos — Brazil's principal space-history site but limited collection), Israeli Air Force Museum (has Apollo capsule + Beresheet model). Marko's editorial call. Aim for ~20 in v0.8 ship list; defer the rest to a follow-up wave.

Data shape (mirrors reading-list / watch-list)

type Entry = {
  title: string;        // museum / facility / launch-site name
  location: string;     // city, country
  blurb: string;        // 1–2 sentences on what makes it visit-worthy
  href?: string;        // official website
  cover?: string;       // /images/recommendations/visit/<slug>.jpg (optional)
  visit_class:          // surface filter — three sub-flavours
    | 'museum'          // Class 1: restored hardware on display
    | 'facility-tour'   // Class 2: active space facility with public access
    | 'launch-site';    // Class 3: operational launch site visiting + on-launch viewing
  visit_notes?: string; // optional: booking notes, access caveats ("by reservation", "Open House only", "restricted access requires advance permission")
  exhibits?: Array<{    // optional cross-links to fleet entries
    fleet_id: string;   // e.g. "discovery", "atlantis", "vostok"
    label?: string;     // override display label if needed
  }>;
};

Cross-link rendering: when a fleet entry exists for an exhibit (e.g., discovery shuttle), the museum entry surfaces a small chip linking to /fleet/crewed-spacecraft/discovery. Bidirectional: every fleet entry with a museum_location_ref gets an "Currently displayed at …" line linking back to /science/visit-list#<museum-slug>.

Bidirectional cross-link wiring on fleet entries

For the 12–15 museum entries, ~25–30 fleet entries pick up a "currently on display at" line. Examples:

Fleet entry	Display location → museum slug
apollo-csm-block-ii (one of the surviving CMs — Columbia, Endeavour, Charlie Brown, Yankee Clipper, etc.)	Smithsonian / KSC / Space Center Houston / Intrepid / Huntsville
discovery	Udvar-Hazy
atlantis	KSC Visitor Complex
endeavour	California Science Center
enterprise	Intrepid
buran-ok-gli	Technik Museum Speyer
vostok (backup)	Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics / Tsiolkovsky
soyuz-7k-ok / similar restored	various Russian + European
apollo-lm (LTA-8 etc.)	Space Center Houston / Smithsonian
lunokhod-1 (backup)	Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics

Slice-time work includes auditing which fleet entries genuinely have a public-display analogue + filing the cross-link.

Slice order

Slice 1 (route + curated list PR) —
  · author src/routes/science/visit-list/+page.svelte with all 12–15 entries (en-US strings hardcoded)
  · register the route in /science layout / navigation alongside reading-list + watch-list
  · cover images deferred (placeholders render the colour-block fallback same as the sibling routes)
  · acceptance: route renders, all 12–15 entries visible, no 404s on external links

Slice 2 (fleet cross-link audit + wiring PR) —
  · audit each of ~25–30 candidate fleet entries
  · add `museum_location` field where genuinely on display
  · render "Currently displayed at <museum>" line on the fleet entry detail panel
  · bidirectional: `/science/visit-list` entries link out to fleet entries by id
  · acceptance: every cross-link resolves, no orphan refs, validate-data green

Slice 3 (cover images + global locale propagation, optional follow-up) —
  · source one cover image per museum (PD or fair-use); image-pipeline catch-up
  · locale propagation for en-US strings via existing translation pipeline (low-priority for v0.8 ship; non-en-US falls back to en-US per PRD-007)

Done definition

Slice 1

• /science/visit-list route renders 12–15 entries in en-US
• Route registered in /science layout navigation alongside reading-list + watch-list (matching chip / link style)
• All external href URLs resolve (no 404s as of slice-merge date)
• npm run preflight green
• Sibling routes' colour-block placeholder pattern reused for entries without a cover image (no broken <img> requests)

Slice 2

• Every fleet entry with a real-world display analogue carries museum_location field with the visit-list entry slug
• Detail panel renders "Currently displayed at " line for those entries
• validate-data green; no orphan museum slug refs

v0.8 ship bar

• Slice 1 + Slice 2 merged
• ≥ 1 museum per continent (NA, EU, Asia, optional SA/AU)
• ≥ 1 museum per major space-faring nation that has a curated entry: USA, Russia, China, France, Germany, UK, Japan, India
• Cross-link from at least 10 fleet entries to a visit-list museum
• PRD-027 status → Accepted (v0.8)

Out of scope (v0.8)

• Museum opening hours / ticket-booking integration (not a goal; orrery isn't a travel site)
• Per-museum visitor reviews / star ratings
• Interactive maps with museum pins (defer to v0.9; needs basemap infrastructure that doesn't exist yet)
• Museums under construction (Endeavour Pavilion ships open ~2026 — flag in entry's blurb, not gate on construction completion)
• Astronaut training centres outside the museum framing (Star City, JAXA Tsukuba)
• Planetariums and observatories with public access (those go under PRD-028 ground-observatory category)
• Schools/universities with notable space-history displays
• Cover image curation past Slice 1 — handled in Slice 3 follow-up, not blocked on v0.8 ship

Risks

• Closure / relocation drift. Endeavour's Pavilion is under construction; Atlantis display fees change; Russian museum access is uncertain post-2022 sanctions (Tsiolkovsky State Museum still open to international visitors per 2026 reports; Star City Cosmonaut Centre requires advance permission). Re-verify per-entry at slice time; flag access notes in blurb.
• Source-of-truth for exhibit accuracy. Museums rotate exhibits — "Apollo 11 CM Columbia" lived in DC for decades but went on tour 2017–2021. Entry-level claims about specific hardware must source from the museum's current online catalogue, not historical references.
• Geographic + agency representation gaps. South America has no major space-history museum on the curated list (Brazil's Memorial Aeroespacial Brasileiro is the principal candidate but the collection is limited); Africa likewise has no flagship space-history museum despite SARAO + MeerKAT operating there. Be honest about this rather than pad with non-space general-science museums to claim coverage. Re-survey at slice time — if a major new museum has opened (e.g., a Lagos / Cape Town / São Paulo space museum announcement post-2025), promote into the cut.

References

• Project memory: "Orrery celebrates global space programs, not just NASA"
• Existing sibling routes: src/routes/science/reading-list/+page.svelte, src/routes/science/watch-list/+page.svelte
• PRD-008 (/science editorial structure)
• v0.8 content epic: chipi/orrery#313 (PRD-025) — this PRD is a sibling slice in the same v0.8 content track
• Sister PRD: PRD-028 (Earth-based observatories — radio telescopes + DSN sites)
• Marko's personal visit log: airandspacehistory.com — cross-referenced for the 2026-06-09 cut so the v0.8 ship list includes museums Marko has actually walked through