Apollo 6 at the Alabama Space & Rocket Center

Either at its opening in 1970 or shortly thereafter, Apollo 6 (or "Apollo VI", as it was known at the time) resided at the Alabama Space & Rocket Center (known today as the U.S. Space & Rocket Center), occupying the main exhibit floor of what is now the "old" museum building. I'm not certain when it was relocated to the Fernbank Science Center, where it currently resides.

Apollo 6 at the US Alabama Space and Rocket Center (USSRC)

Click image for a 2031x1405 pixel version of this image in a new window.
From my early ASRC brochure
Scan by heroicrelics.org.

For those of us accustomed to seeing spacecraft inside fishbowls or wrapped in protective Plexiglas, it was certainly a different attitude regarding the display of space artifacts. In fact, the souvenir booklet from which these pictures were scanned boasts that the ASRC

... lets you be the astronaut — as you see, hear, touch, operate, and manipulate Space Age equipment. It is far removed from the 'don't touch' style museum of tradition.

And here we have a picture of a fine young gentleman touching Apollo 6! The original caption reads "Apollo VI: The Apollo spacecraft was launched unmanned into earth orbit by an Apollo/Saturn moon rocket. Apollo VI re-entry was at a speed of about 25,000 mph with head shield temperature in excess of 5,000 degrees F."

Apollo 6 at the US Alabama Space and Rocket Center (USSRC)

Click image for a 1206x994 pixel version of this image in a new window.
From my early ASRC brochure
Scan by heroicrelics.org.

Of course, spacecraft are protected from the public today for a reason; a recent eBay auction offered an item "taken" from one of the Apollo 6 thrusters (I wonder if it was that fine young man above who did the taking?):

Apollo 6 postal cover

From an eBay auction