National Air and Space Museum

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National Air and Space Museum to Temporarily Close March 2022 to Finish Brand New Galleries

The National Air and Space Museum will temporarily close on March 28, 2022. When it reopens in fall 2022, it will reopen with eight new galleries.

Smoke pours from the west wing of the Pentagon building September 11, 2001 in Arlington, Virginia, after a plane crashed into the building and set off a huge explosion. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Smithsonian's Chris Browne Was the Manager at Ronald Reagan National Airport on 9/11

The acting director of the National Air and Space Museum reflects 20 years later on the rapid grounding of air traffic across the US

Michael Collins, the Museum's third director, stands before the steel skeleton of the new National Air and Space Museum in July 1974.

Carrying the Fire

National Air and Space Museum acting director Christopher U. Browne reflects on the life and legacy of one of his predecessors, Apollo 11 astronaut and former Museum director Michael Collins.

Michael Collins' NASA astronaut portrait.

Remembering Michael Collins

The National Air and Space Museum looks back at the extraordinary life of pilot, astronaut, and statesman Michael Collins, who has died at the age of 90.

This view of Gemini VII from VI-A in December 1965 shows the spacecraft’s orbital configuration.

Gemini VIII’s Near-Disaster

On March 16, 1966, the Gemini Vlll astronauts faced the first life-threatening, in-flight emergency in the short history of the U.S. human spaceflight program.

Vera Rubin and Kent Ford (white hat) setting up their image tube spectrograph at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. (Photo: THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION FOR SCIENCE)

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory and Women of Chilean Astronomy

The Vara C. Rubin Observatory is perched on Chile's Cerro Pachon in the foothills of the Andes Mountains and stands as a doorway to exploring the women of Chilean astronomy.

The Perseverance captured this image of itself and the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter days before its maiden flight. (NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ ASU/ MSSS/ Seán Doran)

The Wright Moment: Ingenuity Prepares for Flight

Ingenuity, the small, four-pound autonomous aircraft, will attempt the biggest of feats. The Wright brothers lifted their 1903 Wright Flyer off the ground over a century ago, and now the Mars helicopter will attempt the same. Ginny took off from the surface of the Red Planet on Monday, April 19.

Eating canned food in space. (NASA)

I’ll have the Veal! Preservation with a Can-Do Attitude

Is it practical to retain perishable material and what long-range obligations are required? To find the answers, a collaborative efforts was required, allowing for preservation of our collection of space food.

Christina Koch (left) poses for a portrait with Jessica Meir while preparing for their first spacewalk together. (Image courtesy of NASA)

A Seat in the Cockpit: Recognizing and Replacing Biases with Gender Inclusive Language

The era of "manned" spaceflight ended long ago, and the continued use of this language diminishes and erases six decades of women's contributions to spaceflight

Artist’s conception of the Perseverance rover sampling rocks on the floor of Jezero crater. The rover also carries the Ingenuity helicopter (not shown) that can fly in advance of the rover and scout out high priority rocks and outcrops for the rover to visit. (NASA)

Is There Life on Mars?

To get the answer, we have to know what to look for and where to go on the planet for evidence of past life. With the Perseverance rover set to land on Mars on February 18, we are finally in a position to know.

Alan Shepard on the lunar surface of the Moon during Apollo 14 mission. Photographed by Edgar D. Mitchell still inside Antares. (NASA)

Lessons from Apollo 14

The Apollo program should be remembered as much for landing the first humans on the Moon as it is for countless demonstrations of problem solving and ingenuity, of continual fine-tuning and honing of expertise, which enabled NASA to set even more ambitious goals with each successive mission.

Jack Schmitt picking up the gnomon after collecting samples. This view is to the west toward the Lee Lincoln Scarp. Apollo image AS17-140-21496.

Small Steps and Giant Leaps in the Apollo Lunar Landings

The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 14 mission, which included the longest moonwalk without a rover, is a good time to show how traverses away from the lunar landers progressed from one mission to the next.

Artist’s rendition of Ingenuity flying on Mars. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Driving Mars Exploration: How the Perseverance Rover Will Pave a Path into the Future

It’s been nearly 60 years since the first spacecraft were sent to Mars, and it’s inspiring to reflect on the progress that has been made since then. If all goes according to plan, the landing of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will mark the start of NASA’s ninth surface mission on the Red Planet.

Perseverance Rover on Mars ( NASA Illustration)

Six Ways to Celebrate Perseverance This February

Be a part of NASA's Perseverance rover landing this February with these six ways to celebrate the mission to Mars.

Lt. Ward Hitt, Jr., sitting in the cockpit of his North American F-86A Sabre fighter, gives his crew chief the OK hand sign, South Korea.

70 Years Ago: F-86s and MiGs over Korea

On December 17, 1950, the first known aerial combat between swept-wing jet fighters took place in the skies over Korea. The Russian-built Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 had been recently introduced and its speed and maneuverability caused trouble for the United States and in response, the North American F-86 Sabre was rushed to Korea. Ward Hitt, Jr., a member of the 4th Fighter Interceptor Group, chronicled the early days of the F-86 in combat in a detailed scrapbook.

Carruthers holding one of the film cassettes that the astronauts brought back from the moon from his lunar camera/sectrograph. (NASA)

George Robert Carruthers: Astronautical Engineer and Astronomer

Astronautical engineer and astronomer George Robert Carruthers, a name well-known and dearly regarded in the space science community, and a good friend of the National Air and Space Museum, passed away on Saturday, December 26 after a long illness.

Two prominent lobate thrust fault scarps on Mercury, Discovery Rupes and Beagles Rupes, imaged by Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) on the MESSENGER spacecraft. Discovery Rupes (left), named for the ship HMS Discovery, shown here in a MDIS high-incidence angle image mosaic, was first imaged by Mariner 10 in the mid-1970’s. Beagle Rupes (right), a bow-shaped fault scarp, was initial imaged during MESSENGER’s first flyby.

Mercury, The Not So Shrunken Planet

Based on my research, which include image composites of two flyby views of Mercury from the MESSENGER spacecraft, I conclude that Mercury has not cooled and shrunken as much as previously thought.

NASA astronaut and Pilot Victor Glover launched from the International Space Station on the agency’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission. (SpaceX)

Five Things We Learned from Victor Glover

Discover what it's really like to live and work in space! Astronaut Victor Glover shares his thoughts and little-known facts about being an astronaut.

Gen. Glen VanHerck, Commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command talks on the phone as part of a video celebrating the NORAD Santa Tracker's 65th year.

Why NORAD Tracks Santa Claus

How did a misdialed phone number lead to a holiday tradition.

Chuck Yeager with Bell X-1. (NASM)

Remembering Chuck Yeager, a Pilot with the Right Stuff

The greatest pilot of the greatest generation has passed. Seventy-nine years to the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, famed test pilot, World War II ace, and the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound, Brig. Gen. Charles “Chuck” Yeager, died at the age of 97.

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