10 showstoppers to see beyond Endeavour at the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center

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Set us as preferred A recent Times review of the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center declares that the Endeavour space shuttle — displayed for the first time ever in launch position — “is, simply put, one of the greatest artifacts ever installed in a museum.”While it may be true that visitors will flock to L.A.’s newest cultural haven just to see the shuttle, the 200,000-square-foot addition to the California Science Center contains plenty of other mind-melting artifacts to gawk at — especially if you’re an aerospace buff.If you’ve read Tom Wolfe’s riveting 1979 book “The Right Stuff” (or seen the movie) about the early years of NASA’s space program, you’ll likely feel downright starstruck when confronted with iconic pieces of history ripped straight from its pages.But there’s much more than history at this tech-forward new museum.

This list of must-see artifacts reminds us of all we know about air and space, and all we don’t — as well as the many novel and ingenious ways we continue to work toward fresh discoveries.A short walk from Endeavour you’ll find a display of three historic space vessels.

In 1961, the Mercury-Redstone 2 transported a brave “astrochimp” named Ham to space in order to discern if the trip would be safe for humans.The heat-scarred cone resembles a large child’s toy, and it’s hard to imagine what Ham must have been thinking and feeling strapped to the small couch visible inside the capsule.

Nearby you’ll see the Apollo-Soyuz Command Module, which American astronauts Tom Stafford, Deke Slayton and Vance D.Brand flew to meet with a Russian Soyuz spacecraft orbiting Earth in 1975.

Visitors can see the docking tunnel where American and Russian astronauts greeted each other in space for the first time.Finally, be sure to check out the Gemini 11 capsule, which set an altitude record of 850 miles when it took astronauts Dick Gordon and Pete Conrad ...