USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum Facts for Kids

Significant dates

USS Hornet (CV-12) (Aircraft Carrier)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark

The USS Hornet docked in Alameda, California, where it serves as a museum.
NRHP reference No.	91002065
Added to NRHP	December 4, 1991
Designated NHL	December 4, 1991

The USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum is a floating museum located in Alameda, California. The museum is inside the historic aircraft carrier USS Hornet. This massive ship is docked at a pier that was once part of the Naval Air Station Alameda.

Visitors can explore many parts of the ship, including the flight deck where planes took off and landed, and the huge hangar deck where aircraft were stored and repaired. The museum features amazing exhibits about the ship's history, its role in space exploration, and a collection of real aircraft. You can take a self-guided tour or join a guided tour to see special areas like the ship's bridge and engine rooms.

The USS Hornet is a famous ship with a long history. It was launched during World War II and fought in major battles in the Pacific Ocean. After the war, it took on new missions, including hunting for submarines. One of its most exciting jobs was helping with the NASA Apollo space missions. The Hornet picked up astronauts from the ocean after they returned from the Moon.

The ship was retired in 1970. In the 1990s, it was saved from being scrapped and turned into the museum we can visit today. The museum opened in 1998 to honor the ship's service to the United States.

History of the USS Hornet
Aircraft on Display
The Apollo Mission Connection
Special Events at the Museum
Exploring the Ship
- Exterior and Deck
- Inside the USS Hornet
Images for kids
See also

History of the USS Hornet

The USS Hornet (CV-12) is a national historic landmark. The museum's mission is to preserve the ship and teach people about its important role in history. This includes its service in the U.S. Navy, its contributions to the defense of the country, and its part in the Apollo Program and space exploration.

The museum officially opened to the public on October 17, 1998. The opening ceremony was a special event. Buzz Aldrin, one of the first astronauts to walk on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission, was the main speaker. Other important guests included local government leaders and military officials.

Aircraft on Display

The USS Hornet Museum has an impressive collection of aircraft. These planes and helicopters come from different eras, from the 1940s to the 1980s. Visitors can see them up close on the flight deck and in the hangar deck. Sometimes, the museum uses the ship's giant aircraft elevator to move the planes between decks.

Some of the amazing aircraft you can see include:

TBM-3E Avenger: A torpedo bomber used in World War II.
T-28B Trojan: A plane used to train military pilots.
FJ-2 Fury: A fighter jet with swept-back wings from the 1950s.
F8U-1 Crusader: A supersonic fighter jet from the Vietnam War era.
F-14A Tomcat: A famous fighter jet that served in the Gulf War.
F-4J Phantom II: A multi-purpose jet fighter from the Vietnam era.
HUP-1 Retriever: A helicopter used for search and rescue missions from ships.
SH-3H Sea King: A helicopter designed to find and track submarines.
F/A-18C Hornet: A modern jet fighter and attack aircraft.

The Apollo Mission Connection

The USS Hornet played a key role in one of the greatest achievements in human history: landing on the Moon. In 1969, it was chosen as the main recovery ship for the Apollo 11 mission. After astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins returned to Earth, the Hornet was there to pick them and their spacecraft up from the Pacific Ocean.

A few months later, the Hornet did the same job for the Apollo 12 mission. The museum now has the largest exhibit about the Apollo Program on the West Coast. Highlights of the Apollo exhibit include:

An Apollo Command Module that was used in an uncrewed test flight.
A Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF). This was a special trailer used to house the Apollo 14 astronauts to make sure they didn't bring back any germs from the Moon.
A SH-3H Sea King helicopter that was painted to look like the one used in the recovery. It was also used in the movie Apollo 13.
Photos and items from the Apollo 11 and 12 splashdowns.

Special Events at the Museum

The USS Hornet is not just a museum; it's also a place for fun events. It hosts CarrierCon, a convention for fans of anime, video games, and comics. People often dress up in costumes of their favorite characters, a practice known as cosplay.

In 2023, CarrierCon worked with Azur Lane, a popular mobile game where historical warships are imagined as characters. The ship itself, Hornet, is a character in the game. Later that year, the museum hosted a big event for the game's 5th anniversary. In 2025, the convention featured virtual performers known as VTubers, who gave a special concert for the attendees.

Exploring the Ship

Exterior and Deck

The "island" is the tall command center of the aircraft carrier.
A view of the flight deck and the island.
The flight deck, with the city of San Francisco in the background.

Inside the USS Hornet

The hangar deck was like a giant garage for aircraft.
Another view of the huge hangar deck.
The Apollo Command Module on display.
A powerful steam turbine in one of the ship's engine rooms.
A control panel in the engine room filled with dials and switches.
This is where the enlisted sailors slept in bunks stacked three high.
The "head" is the Navy term for a bathroom. This one was for the Marines on board.
A long hallway, or passageway, on one of the ship's lower decks.
The ship had its own pharmacy to provide medicine for the crew.
The mess deck is where the crew ate their meals.
The front part of the hangar deck, as seen in 2022.

Images for kids

A preserved F-14 Tomcat fighter jet on the deck of the USS Hornet.
An SH-2F Seasprite helicopter on display in the museum.
A Piasecki HUP-1 Retriever, an early type of military helicopter.
A Sikorsky SH-3H Sea King helicopter, famous for its role in astronaut recovery.
A T-28B Trojan training aircraft.
A TBM Avenger torpedo bomber with its wings folded for storage, just as it would have been on the crowded deck of a carrier.
An F-14 Tomcat, one of the most famous fighter jets in the U.S. Navy.