With the COVID pandemic closing the Museum’s locations for part of the year and still impacting people’s ability to visit the Museum in person even once they were able to reopen, the Museum once again relied on digital channels to share its collection and expertise with its community.
2021 included a number of significant aviation and space anniversaries. Anticipating increased interest and understanding its role in educating our audience about these moments in aerospace history, the Museum created special digital content about these moments:
The landing of Mars rover Perseverance on the Red Planet in February 2021 and the successful first flight of Mars helicopter Ingenuity in April 2021 were both big moments for space exploration in 2021, and the Museum’s digital and social media reacted accordingly:
The Museum collaborated with Smithsonian Enterprises to create exclusive limited-edition merchandise surrounding the Perseverance landing and Ingenuity flights on Mars. The products were released in two separate “merch drops” — one in February surrounding Perseverance’s touchdown on Mars and one in April surrounding Ingenuity’s flight. The 10-day Perseverance drop generated $176,000 in sales with 26% of purchases including an optional donation to the Museum and $146,000 in sales with 21% purchases including a donation.
Work continued on the Museum’s Air and Space Photo initiative, made possible through the generous support of the Ryna and Melvin Cohen Family Foundation. Through the initiative, the Museum's photography team is capturing high-resolution images of the Museum’s iconic large aircraft and spacecraft and making them available to the public. Over 300 new high-resolution photographs of 23 small and large objects were captured and progress was made on capture and processing of two major museum artifacts.
Artifacts photographed in 2021 included the Manta Pterodactyl Fledgling, a McDonnell Douglas F/A-18C in Blue Angels livery, and an SR-71 full pressure suit type S1030. In 2021, Air and Space Photo content received nearly 8 million views on the website and social media content.
With the COVID pandemic closing the Museum’s locations for part of the year and still impacting people’s ability to visit the Museum in person even once they were able to reopen, the Museum once again relied on digital channels to share its collection and expertise with its community.
2021 included a number of significant aviation and space anniversaries. Anticipating increased interest and understanding its role in educating our audience about these moments in aerospace history, the Museum created special digital content about these moments:
The landing of Mars rover Perseverance on the Red Planet in February 2021 and the successful first flight of Mars helicopter Ingenuity in April 2021 were both big moments for space exploration in 2021, and the Museum’s digital and social media reacted accordingly:
The Museum collaborated with Smithsonian Enterprises to create exclusive limited-edition merchandise surrounding the Perseverance landing and Ingenuity flights on Mars. The products were released in two separate “merch drops” — one in February surrounding Perseverance’s touchdown on Mars and one in April surrounding Ingenuity’s flight. The 10-day Perseverance drop generated $176,000 in sales with 26% of purchases including an optional donation to the Museum and $146,000 in sales with 21% purchases including a donation.
Work continued on the Museum’s Air and Space Photo initiative, made possible through the generous support of the Ryna and Melvin Cohen Family Foundation. Through the initiative, the Museum's photography team is capturing high-resolution images of the Museum’s iconic large aircraft and spacecraft and making them available to the public. Over 300 new high-resolution photographs of 23 small and large objects were captured and progress was made on capture and processing of two major museum artifacts.
Artifacts photographed in 2021 included the Manta Pterodactyl Fledgling, a McDonnell Douglas F/A-18C in Blue Angels livery, and an SR-71 full pressure suit type S1030. In 2021, Air and Space Photo content received nearly 8 million views on the website and social media content.