Splashdown Grand Turk, the newest attraction on Grand Turk in the Turks and Caicos, opened on Jan. 28 to commemorate the island's connection to NASA's Mercury space program.
On Feb. 20, 1962, the Mercury Friendship 7 capsule, with astronaut John Glenn aboard, circled the Earth three times and then splashed down in the ocean a few miles off the coast of Grand Turk.
The space flight lasted four hours, 55 minutes, during which Glenn became the first American to orbit the planet.
The 3,500-square-foot Splashdown Grand Turk, located in the Grand Turk Cruise Center, features replicas of items from the Mercury space program, including a scaled-down Atlas rocket; a lifesize, three-dimensional model of Glenn in his spacesuit; and a Friendship 7 capsule.
There also is a replica of the capsule at the entrance to Grand Turk Airport.
The Grand Turk Cruise Center, opened by Carnival Corp. in 2006, features a cruise pier and a 14-acre complex with stores and restaurants.
The current cruise season comprises 285 ship calls to Grand Turk carrying 625,000 passengers.