The Space Museum and Grissom Center, Bonne Terre MO

This was such a cool little museum! The ladies that work there do such an amazing job putting on a show and answering questions. They were so kind and full of knowledge! There is a little video they show that gives you the auditory experience of watching a launch and a singing robot! The artifacts that have been collected there are really cool and interesting to read about. Everything was very well laid out. I would plan about an hour if this is something you are just curious about or have younger kids and allow up to two hours if this is an actual interest of yours. It may not take two hours to get through the museum but a lot of the artifacts have stories connected to them that the employees are all more than willing to share!

An absolute gem.a delightful find on our way to doing something else (that we let slide so that we could spend 2.5 hours in the museum).
EARL MULLINS gave us a personal tour, and we still didn't see half of the artifacts.
A wonderfully cozy and well curated museum filled with flown, and un-flown, astronautical artifacts. The artifacts are up close, but the real treasures are the stories, the histories, all stashed in Earl's head. Somebody needs to upload this man's memories and consciousness!
For 15 minutes, my wife and I FaceTime'd my brother, an aerospace engineer, and gave him a virtual tour as Earl walked and talked.
Earl is absolutely correct. Missouri has a rich history in aerospace. A history that should be remember and shared as humans race back to the moon and beyond.
Julie and I are still laughing and pinching ourselves at our serendipitous luck.
What a treasure for us now, and for posterity.

Charles and Julie Tadros

P. S. Part of the way through our tour, a wonderful family with 4 very young children joined us. The focus and insightful questions from the 5 year-old girl and 4 year-old boy added immeasurably to our tour. Thank you!

Amazing collection of space program artifacts and info; much more than might be expected in a small town. Friendly, informative docents and high-quality exhibits. Worth a drive.

I took my family who was visiting from Germany here after a trip into the mines, since the buildings are back to back.
Based on the size of the museum, I was anticipating it to be a nice place to cap off the day and spend 30 minutes or so, but honestly I think we stayed there past the point it would have closed?
Personally, my wife and I could have spent the entire day there, and only didn't because of a minor medical issue with a family member.

Our tour guide Randy was fun and engaging and had so many explanations and anecdotes for us that each item had several minutes of value added beyond the usual self-guided museum touring.

While the museum itself has a small footprint, it displays things well. Everything is spaced widely apart enough that things are full and busy but don't feel cramped. You can interact directly with quite a few of the items, and they let us put on or touch things that have once been to space. I'm sure this sounds like a curator's nightmare, but I've always been of the opinion that the value of a special or historical item is in its ability to spark wonder in future generations, and I'm sure this does just that.

I was on a tour at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory out in California when they were working on Spirit and Opportunity, and this definitely instilled similar feelings in me.

I heard the collection is rotated every so often, so I plan to eventually go back.

Lots of items for a small space. But not crowded. Owner very interactive with tourists & very entertaining. Knowledgeable about the items interacts great with kids and adults too. Very much enjoyed our visit, lots to see. Will visit again.

This place was much more than it seems. The people that work here are truly awesome. Earl takes a ton of pride in what he's doing and really knows his stuff. Very educational and the kids loved it!

Lots of cool stuff you wouldn't expect in a small town museum. Our family had a great time looking around and talking with Earl about the museum and the items there. If you're passing by stop by and take a look. You know, if space travel interests you. And yes, they have some of the freeze dried snacks

I was not expecting much, but this museum was perfect! It is very well put together with a great mix of interesting artifacts and lots of plaque explanation and history. Earl M was the icing on the cake. He had such fun quizzing and sharing info with my college aged boys and my husband (and me, but it wasn’t as much my thing). So glad we added it to our day!

Really enjoyable museum with interesting artifacts and memorabilia. The staff were very nice and helpful. They were informative and my kids enjoyed the video/robot. Fun day trip from St Louis.

My husband and older boy were golfing so I took the 5 year old here. It went from exhibit to exhibit. The staff was so friendly.

He got to put a space glove on. He was so excited!

The staff was very friendly and the exhibit was very nice. Keep in mind it is a small building. Don't bring large strollers. It'll be pretty tight

A must see if you’re anywhere in the area. An outstanding collection of historical artifacts and well informed, enthusiastic volunteers available to explain and answer any part of the exhibit. They encourage you to touch and experience all elements - can’t recommend enough!

A hidden gem of Bonne Terre. The tour guide was amazing. All three of us agreed that this was the best museum experience we ever had. Definitely will return!

This is definitely a hidden gem. I would rate more stars if I could. They have all kinds of things from the space program and the people from the museum provide lots of information about all the things they have. You can see a moon rock. They also have a robot. We had a group of kids and even the 6 year old was fully engaged in what our guide was saying.
Plan to spend some time there.
They have a nice gift shop too with things in all price ranges.