June 14, 2008 - January 12, 2009 (new closing date)
Artifacts, along with mechanical and computer interactives, highlight current projects in space exploration -- satellites, space telescopes, living in space -- and provide a glimpse to future human space travel.
Organized by NASA to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
On view are 6 aircraft -- Military Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) -- that represent a cross-section of modern unmanned flight systems technology. These aircraft are commonly used by all four military services around the globe to perform many types of missions, including reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition, bomb damage assessment, and attack. The evolution of unmanned military aircraft began during World War I and continues today.
Details of the often overlooked "simple beauty" of aircraft and spacecraft design can be seen in the 56 color photographs by museum photographer Carolyn Russo. By emphasizing the aesthetic, Russo creates images that distill the complexity of airplanes and spaceships into bold combinations of line, shape, light, and color.
This gallery traces NASA's manned space program beginning with Project Mercury's Freedom 7 (5/5/61); then the Gemini Project (1965-66); followed by the Apollo Program (1967-1972), with Apollo 17 as the last manned exploration of the moon.
The gallery illustrates how the electronic computer has revolutionized aerospace engineering, aviation, and spaceflight. Computers are used to design and build air- and spacecraft, monitor air traffic, navigate and control flights, and train pilots.
This re-created indoor aeronautical exhibition (circa 1913) highlights the early history of the airplane from antiquity through the first decade of powered flight. Period furnishings, talking mannequins, and ragtime music combine to bring back the special ambience of the time.
Through objects, interactives, and videos, this exhibition explains what scientists think our universe is like, how the present scientific view of the universe came to be, how it is being shaped today, and what mysteries remain. With the development of each new tool to explore the universe -- telescopes, photography, spectroscopy -- our understanding of the universe changed dramatically. Despite these new advances, many of our questions remain unanswered: What is the universe? How big is it? How old is it? How did it begin? A changing section on what's new in our exploration of the universe will keep the exhibition up to date and attempt to answer these questions.
This gallery highlights the history and achievements of planetary exploration, both Earth-based and by spacecraft.
Highlights include: • Voyager: full-scale replica of the spacecraft that explored Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune in the 1970s and 1980s • A Piece of Mars? A meteorite fragment discovered in Antarctica in 1979 and thought to be from Mars (placed on view 6/16/1990) • Surveyor 3 television camera: retrieved from the surface of the Moon by the Apollo 12 astronauts
This gallery covers the years between the World Wars (1919-1939) but focuses on the period shortly after Lindbergh's flight in 1927 through 1939. Described as "golden" because of many advances in aviation technology, record-making flights, and intense interest by the public in aviation events, the era produced many of today's legendary aviation heroes. Aircraft and engines, newsreel coverage of aviation events, photographs, models and reproductions, and newspaper headlines are included. Opening coincided with the 60th anniversary of the takeoff of the Douglas World Cruisers, a major event during the Golden Age.
This interactive gallery explains the basic principles of air and space flight through hands-on activities. The gallery features a Cessna 150, a section of a Boeing 757 fuselage, a model of the International Space Station, and more than 50 interactives.
Legend, Memory, and the Great War in the Air (WWI Aviation)
- Permanent
This gallery features the emergence of air power in World War I. Gear, pontoons, and a streamlined boat hull examine the real nature of WWI aviation, plus the power of legend and public perception in history.
This gallery traces the development of technology for viewing Earth from balloons, aircraft, and spacecraft. The quest for ever-higher, ever-clearer images of the Earth is reflected in photographs and spacecraft images from a few feet to 7.5 million miles away. Some photographs are mural-size.
This gallery highlights NASA lunar surface exploration.
Highlights include: • Apollo Lunar Module: a duplicate of the spacecraft that carried astronauts to the surface of the moon in the Apollo Program, late 1960s and early 1970s • Surveyor Spacecraft: soft-landed on the moon to study lunar soil composition and physical properties of the lunar surface, 1966-68 • Lunar Orbital Spacecraft: circled the moon to perform mapping of the entire lunar surface, 1966-67 • Ranger: provided the first closeup photographs of the lunar surface, 1962-65 • Clementine: designed for a two-month mapping mission in orbit around the moon in 1994. Clementine provided answers to many of the questions about the moon that remained from the Apollo era.
Note: This gallery is scheduled to close for renovation February 1, 2009, and is anticipated to reopen early May 2010 (TBA).
This gallery features famous "firsts" and record setters. Since the Wright brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, men and women have had to break both physical and psychological barriers to flight. In these historic aircraft, individuals strived to claim their place in aviation history.
This major exhibition traces the competition in space between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union from its origins in the 1950s to the recent international cooperation. Objects include a Soyuz TM-10 spacecraft, a Kosmos 1443 "Merkur" spacecraft, and a space suit made for the never-accomplished mission to land a Russian on the Moon.
The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age
- Indefinitely
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' historic first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903, this exhibition presents the Wrights' technical achievements and examines the cultural impact of early powered flight. The centerpiece of the gallery is the original 1903 Wright Flyer, displayed on the ground for the first time since acquired by the Smithsonian in 1948. Also on view are 250 photographs and 150 other artifacts, including the stop watch used to time the first powered flights, a Wright wind tunnel test instrument used in unlocking the secrets of aerodynamics, a reproduction of the Wright Brothers' 1899 experimental kite, and full-size reproductions of their 1900 and 1902 experimental gliders.
Hands-on stations and interactive computer stations: both provide an understanding of flight
How did the first commercial airline companies get off the ground? How has the experience of air travel changed over the past century? How will the politics of today affect the way we fly tomorrow? These are some of the issues in the development of commercial air transport this new gallery explores, while expanding on the history of air transportation from only a few years after the invention of powered flight to the commercial challenges and technical sophistication of the 21st-century jet age.
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