The Space Murals Museum is a peculiar and delightful piece of southern New Mexico roadside culture. A large water tank on the north side of Las Cruces has been painted with a panoramic mural depicting the history of the US Space Shuttle program, and the adjacent small museum celebrates the space heritage of New Mexico — which is considerable, given that White Sands Missile Range is next door and the first atomic bomb was tested at Trinity Site, not far to the north.
The museum tells the story of the shuttle program through art rather than artifacts, which gives it a different quality from the more formal space museums in Houston or Kennedy Space Center. The murals were painted by Lyman Whitaker, a New Mexico artist, and are impressive in their scale and ambition. This is firmly roadside attraction territory — plan 30–45 minutes — but it is genuinely worth a stop for anyone interested in space history or just looking for something unexpected.
The location near the junction of I-25 and US-70 makes it a convenient stop between Las Cruces and White Sands National Park.