Outside the Spacecraft: 50 Years of Extra-Vehicular Activity

Extra-vehicular activity, or EVA—working outside a spacecraft—changed the nature of human spaceflight. It made possible walking on the Moon, servicing the Hubble Space Telescope, and building the International Space Station. It remains crucial to our ongoing presence in space.

EVA requires a wearable spacecraft—the spacesuit—and specialized tools for astronauts to survive in the hazardous environment of space. Since the first space walks of Aleksei Leonov and Edward White in 1965, more than 200 astronauts and cosmonauts have amassed over 1,000 hours of EVA experience.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of those first two ventures outside the spacecraft, this exhibition will present art, photography, artifacts, and personal accounts that relate the continuing story of EVA.

This exhibition is made possible through the generosity of NASA, National Air and Space Society, OMEGA, and United Technologies Corporation.