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Source please? (Not that I doubt you, but I'd sure like to be able to cite it!)

Back in the 1970s there was a project called "HAARP" (I think, High Altitude something something Projectile. Maybe) that was using two Iowa-class 16" rifles welded together end-to-end to pop shells up to the edge (and maybe into?) space.

Obviously that won't work for an actual Iowa, because they could never have the structure necessary to handle the kind of rig used in HAARP. Nor could their turrets be elevated high enough.

The Iowas saw all kinds of experimental or small-batch shells over the years. One of them was apparently on the way to Korea with the nuke shells when that war ended (Ike let that little fact be known as an incentive to the NKs to take the peace tals seriously). There was also a 13" subcaliber sabot shell designed to put submunitions onto a target at a range of about 40 miles. Iowa's turret 2 was supposed to be the test crew/turret for this, prior to the explosion ... and during the events leading to the explosion they were playing around with popping off 16" shells using reduced numbers of propellant bags (the load was supposed to be six bags, but they were using 5 during the shoot that resulted in the explosion).

The most interesting was the 11" subcaliber sabot shell that DARPA had designed. It was supposed to be GPS-guided and have a range of about 100 miles. Unfortunately, this was a "paper panzer" and didn't get off the drawing boards prior to the class being put back into mothballs.

There's actually a really decent solution to this situation with the Iowa. They could follow the model used with the Wisconsin and dock her at an existing naval museum, allow visitors onto her open decks but otherwise keep her sealed up. Basically a no-cost option other than the tow (and maybe a good repainting prior to going on display - although her teak decks are likely a real mess at this point and will be tres expensive to replace). Good candidates would be next to the Midway at San Diego (as mentioned) or Hornet at Oakland.