USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum

The USS Hornet Museum officially opened to the public on October 17, 1998. Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin was the principal speaker. Attending dignitaries included Congresswoman Barbara Lee; Honorable Jerry Brown – Mayor-elect of Oakland; Honorable Ralph Appezzato – Mayor of Alameda; General Richard Hearney – Vice President for Domestic Business Development, Boeing Company; and Rear Admiral Robert Chaplin – Superintendent, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California.^[5]

The USS Hornet Museum has many of aircraft on display including propeller aircraft, jet aircraft, and rotorcraft including several Naval helicopters. The aircraft are from the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Museum guests can get up-close to the aircraft displayed on the flight deck and on the hangar deck. Aircraft are sometimes moved between decks utilizing the ship's #1 aircraft elevator. Exhibit highlights include:

• TBM-3E Avenger – Torpedo bomber from World War II
• FM-2 Wildcat WWII Fighter Aircraft.
• T-28B Trojan – Military trainer. Bu.No. 529263
• US-2B Tracker – Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) utility aircraft. BuNo. 136691
• FJ-2 Fury – 1950s swept-wing fighter jet. Navalised aircraft version of the USAF F-86 Sabre
• TA-4J Skyhawk – Trainer from the last aggressor squadron, Fleet Composite Squadron 8 (VC-8), known as the "Redtails"
• F8U-1 Crusader – Vietnam War era supersonic fighter
• F-8 Crusader Cockpit- The United States Navy’s first supersonic jet fighter.
• F-11 Tiger - Late 1950s supersonic fighter (Cockpit and nose only)
• S-3B Viking – All-weather, multi-mission, anti-submarine & sea surface search aircraft. Bu.No. 160599
• F-14A Tomcat – Veteran of the Gulf War. BuNo 162689 was built in 1986 and served with several squadrons: VF-14, VF-41 and VF-101. During Desert Storm, as a part of VF-41, it lead the first strike against Iraq from the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71).
• F-4J Phantom II - Vietnam era multirole jet fighter. Bureau Number: 153879. On March 25, 1986, it took off from USS Midway CV-41 as the last F-4 in history launched from an aircraft carrier.
• HUP-1 Retriever - Ship based utility helicopter for search and rescue
• SH-2F Seasprite - Shipboard utility helicopter retired in the 1990s.^[6]
• SH-3H Sea King - All weather helicopter designed for anti-submarine warfare
• UH-34D Seahorse - Vietnam era personnel transport and combat assault helicopter
• F/A-18C Hornet - Modern era multirole attack and jet fighter. Bu No 163502, on loan from the National Naval Aviation Museum. This aircraft is one of two F/A-18C Hornets assigned to the VFA-81 Sunliners that shot down a pair of Iraqi MiG-21 Fishbeds on the first day of Operation Desert Storm on January 17, 1991.

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  Preserved F-14 on deck, February 2009
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  SH-2F Seasprite on display in the museum ship
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  Piasecki HUP-1 Retriever
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  Sikorsky SH-3H Sea King
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  T-28B Trojan
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  TBM Avenger on display with wings folded, and a torpedo

USS Hornet was selected in 1969 to serve as the Prime Recovery Ship (PRS) for the Apollo 11 Moon mission. Hornet led the recovery of the first astronauts to land on the Moon following their splashdown back on Earth. Four months later, Hornet recovered the all-Navy crew of Apollo 12. The USS Hornet Museum has the largest Apollo Program exhibit on the West Coast of the United States. Artifacts on display include:

• Apollo Command Module CSM-011 used for the AS-202 uncrewed suborbital flight test^[7]
• Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF) used by the Apollo 14 astronauts following their return to Earth
• SH-3H Sea King used in the 1995 movie Apollo 13
• Memorabilia and photos from the Apollo 11 and 12 splashdowns

Hornet also hosts CarrierCon, a fan convention for anime, video game, comic and cosplay fans. In 2023, CarrierCon collaborated with Azur Lane, a mobile game that features anthropomorphic "shipgirls" including Hornet herself (as Hornet II to distinguish her from her Yorktown-class version), as well as featuring a separate shipgirl called "Hornet-Chan" as the mascot of the event.^[8][9][10] Later that year, Hornet was chosen to host Azur Lane's live event celebrating the 5th anniversary of its English/worldwide release.^[11] In 2025, the con hosted a variety of VTubers, many from VFleet Project, which provided an in-person virtual concert to attendees.^[10][12][13]

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  F-14 Tomcat
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  The island, or superstructure of the carrier
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  Flight deck and the island
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  Flight deck, with San Francisco in the background

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  Hangar deck
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  Hangar deck
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  Apollo Command Module CM-011A for AS-202 mission
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  A steam turbine in the engine room
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  Control panel in the engine room
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  Enlisted berthing
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  Marines' head (term for bathroom)
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  Passageway on the second deck
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  Pharmacy
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  Mess deck
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  Forward hangar deck, 2022

• U.S. Navy museums (and other aircraft-carrier museums)
• Alameda Naval Air Museum
• List of aircraft carriers of the United States Navy
• List of maritime museums in the United States
• Pacific Reserve Fleet, Alameda
• USS Hornet (CV-12)
• USS Hornet (CV-8)