Before they landed on the moon, they came to Bucks County

When you think of historic Bucks County, covered bridges; stately homes; and beautiful farm-lands come to mind. Little did I know that you can also trace many famous astronauts, the largest human centrifuge, and several modern technologies to our suburban community. Bucks County actually played an important role in the U.S. space program for decades and later hosted many ambitious projects for the U.S. Navy.

In fact, every Mercury; Gemini; & Apollo NASA mission trained at the Johnsville Centrifuge in Warminster, PA. Yep- Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, and Alan Shepard are just a few of the astronauts to have spent time on the largest human centrifuge ever built, which is capable of simulating a mind-boggling force of 40Gs!

Construction of the human centrifuge began in 1947 and initiated operations to research the limits of human tolerance for “G” forces. By the late 1950s it was in use to train astronauts for the US Space Program, and as the race to the moon heated up, so did the training schedule at Johnsville. The centrifuge continued to operate for a variety of projects under Navy control until 1996 then under contract until 2004. Some of the technology developed at Johnsville include GPS systems, airplane “black boxes”, and night vision goggles.

The Flight Deck

Although NASA and the US Navy's use of Johnsville has ceased, an enthusiastic committee has been hard at work turning the facility into an exciting space museum and providing an educational resource as part of STEM learning. Their mission is to provide a world class educational and entertainment environment for the study of aerospace sciences where learning is an inspirational experience.

The Johnsville Centrifuge & Science Museum's exhibits include the mission briefing room, Mayo tank, contour coaches, flight deck, and of course, the human centrifuge. The museum is open to the public on Sundays from 1:00 to 3:30 PM and additional tours can be scheduled by contacting nadcmuseum@comcast.net. Visiting and/or donating will help keep a huge part of our country's history alive in our very own community.