A few weeks ago, we received an e-mail from Speedy Tuesday fan Mike who came across these wonderful displays filled with NASA artifacts at his library. This library is located in Orland Park (Illinois) and is a suburb of Chicago.

NASA in Houston makes available certain items to educational institutions – mostly libraries and schools, according to Mike. A little check with the official NASA website (click here) and schools and libraries can indeed request exhibit displays or NASA artifacts.

Display with NASA artifacts

In any case, besides some very interesting NASA artifacts in those displays (suits, gloves, documentation etc.) Mike also discovered an Omega Speedmaster Professional. It is Speedy Tuesday after all, so there needs to be one in those displays of course. NASA sent an Omega Speedmaster Professional X-33 from the first generation. As an avid Speedy Tuesday reader or Speedmaster fan, you probably know that there are 3 generations of Speedmaster X-33 watches. The 1st model was introduced in 1998, and can be seen here on display. The 2nd generation came a few years later (2001) and was officially discontinued in 2006. Last year, 2014, Omega introduced the 3rd generation X-33 which has new functionality and new design. We recently published a hands-on review of this 3rd Generation Speedmaster X-33 (click here).

Speedmaster X-33 as one of the NASA artifacts

As Mike wrote us: “One of the librarians is an avid NASA Space Program enthusiast and works very hard with NASA to secure various interesting items that have been used by NASA over the decades for the display and enjoyment of our library’s patrons. The items in the display cases are rotated regularly and there are always many interesting new items for viewing that are displayed in creative ways that seem as limitless as space itself.

Imagine how pleased I was recently to see a Speedmaster X33 included within the latest displays! This Speedmaster appears to have seen some use as it has various scratches on the bezel and light wear though it remains in excellent overall condition and retains its original strap.

Mike sent us a bunch of images he took in the Orland Park library. Although it is very difficult to get decent images of the NASA artifacts through glass, the Omega Speedmaster X-33 is clearly visible. In the same exhibition of NASA artifacts was the Casio G-Shock used by astronauts. This model, the DW-5600C-1V has a battery life time of 10 years and a dual time, stopwatch and countdown features.

Enjoy the images that Mike took for us and if you are working at a library or school, it would be a great idea to contact NASA about these type of exhibitions.