Monday, December 10, 2007

The Launch Pad Museum

Joanne Suttile, an OCThen reader, asks if anyone remembers a small science museum in Irvine's Heritage Park called, "The Launch Pad Museum", sometime in the 1980's...

Reading your web site has made me feel a little nostalgic... and a lot "old". I used to think of Jim Sleeper's history of Orange County as the history of OC, but now I realize that the recent "history" is actually stuff I and my family lived... Japanese Village, Lion Country Safari... and other places you don't mention like Old McDonald's Farm in Mission Viejo.

I found your web site while on a search for information about a small science museum near Heritage Park in Irvine. It must have been around in the early 80's and my children...30, 32, and 34... remember it well. It closed and was supposed to reopen in a bigger and better location. I believe the name of the museum was The Launch Pad. If you or anyone else knows any more about it, I really would like some details. I am not sure if it has any connection to the Launch Pad in Crystal Court and the subsequent Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, but any information would be helpful...

Thanks,
Joanne Suttile
Mission Viejo
If you know anything about this, click on "Post a Comment" below and chime in.

2 comments:

  1. It could have connections to the Discovery SCience Center..its a science museum with a launch pad store inside..and a huge rocket thing by the freeway

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  2. I did some research of my own, because I remember going there with my dad as a kid. As for the one in Irvine, next to Heritage Park, I have no recollection of it (I live close to Heritage Park, so I'm pretty sure I would remember it). As for the one you mentioned in Crystal Court, which is now South Coast Plaza, I learned that it was a precursor to the Discovery Science Center, which as you probably know opened next to Main Place Mall. All I can tell you for sure was that I had an awesome time there, and I will never forget the giant albino constrictor they had there!

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