National Air and Space Museum

New Study Reveals How Much the Moon Is Shrinking

A new study of young tectonic landforms on the moon offers the most detailed estimate yet of how much the moon has contracted ...
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Taking Off in Texas: How Military Aircraft Manufacturing Came to the Lone Star State

Explore how World War II brought large-scale aircraft manufacturing to North Texas, transforming the region into a major ...
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The Marines Bid Farewell to the Amazing Harrier Jump Jet

The AV-8B, a famously unforgiving jet, earned the devotion of the pilots who mastered it. It’s May at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in eastern North Carolina—a clear, sun-washed morning ...
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Victor Glover: From California to the Moon

From his early years in southern California to his career as a naval aviator, test pilot, astronaut, and leader, Victor Glover has spent a lifetime building the experience that now prepares him to ...
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National Air and Space Museum

Since the National Air and Space Museum’s building on the National Mall opened in 1976, our guests have been whisked away on adventures in the sky and in space through films in our IMAX theater. 50 ...
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National Air and Space Museum Expands Its Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum has announced the expansion of its Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. This will be the first major construction and physical change to ...
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Spacewalking Without a Rope

Visit us in Washington, DC and Chantilly, VA to explore hundreds of the world’s most significant objects in aviation and space history. Free timed-entry passes are required for the Museum in DC. The ...
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The Cuban Missile Crisis

Browse our collections, stories, research, and on demand content. Maj. Richard Heyser had been sitting 14 miles above the Earth for 5 hours. Soaring at the edge of space, he flew from northern ...
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What was the Space Race?

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project...will be ...
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The First Space Stations

Before the race to the Moon ended in 1969, both the Americans and Soviets were planning their separate futures in space. After the competitive short-term goals of human spaceflight had been met in the ...
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The Military Rockets that Launched the Space Age

Rockets launched the Space Age. They provided the power needed to take spacecraft and people on flights beyond the Earth. Starting with the launch of the first satellite Sputnik in 1957 and continuing ...
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Triumph of the Gooney Bird

If there was a taildragger hall of fame, the Douglas DC-3 would likely merit being the first inductee. The airplane, which first flew in 1935, was designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company to meet the ...