Futures in Space

A new gallery explores the different ways humans could build a presence in outer space.

Many of the galleries at the National Air and Space Museum are centered around iconic artifacts from the Museum’s collection—think Spirit of St. Louis or the 1903 Wright Flyer. Other galleries draw their focus from a particular era, such as World War II or the Apollo program. Although the Futures in Space gallery has its fair share of impressive objects, it is organized around a series of questions.

Opening July 28 at the Museum in Washington, D.C., the Futures in Space gallery presents visitors with multiple visions of what the future of spaceflight might look like and introduces the people, companies, governments, and technologies that are working to define that future. The gallery uses a set of questions to invite visitors to join a conversation about the future, and to voice their opinions, hopes, and concerns about what is to come.

The two entrances to the gallery introduce the exhibition’s overarching questions in large painted letters: Why should we go to space? What should we do there? Who goes to space? These questions are broken down further by the artifacts, labels, and interactive media in the gallery’s three thematic sections. Because everyone on Earth has their own values, motives, and dreams about what space means, we encourage them to interrogate their own perspectives on space and compare them to the opinions and actions of governments, businesses, scientists, and artists who are currently contributing to our shared understanding of space.

Greeting visitors as they enter the gallery on one side is one of science fiction’s most helpful robots—R2-D2. This custom-built replica of the Star Wars droid was loaned to the Museum by Adam Savage, host of television’s MythBusters and a former model-maker for Industrial Light & Magic, a digital film studio founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas in 1975. (Savage is a member of the National Air and Space Museum’s board.) The home-built model embodies the enthusiasm of fans, hobbyists, and tinkerers who have embraced R2-D2 and other science fiction robots as emblems of imagined space futures. When we consider the possibility of exploring and settling the vastness of outer space, we naturally consider robust and versatile mechanical companions to help with tasks difficult for humans.

Ideally, every space exhibition can display a spacecraft that has launched into space and safely returned to Earth—such will be the case with Futures in Space. Last year, commercial spaceflight company Blue Origin donated one of its New Shepard RSS (Reusable Space Ship) crew capsules to the Museum. Designed to accommodate six passengers, RSS First Step made history on July 20, 2021, when it launched into space on an 11-minute flight, marking Blue Origin’s first crewed spaceflight. Since the capsule is still in use, it won’t be exhibited in the Futures in Space gallery until the spacecraft retires. In the meantime, a full-size mockup crew capsule will be on display. 

Positioned at the figurative center of the gallery is a tall, showpiece exhibit case displaying a range of artifacts that speak to a variety of motivations for spaceflight. Unlike most museum exhibits, the case has no physical labels. Instead, an interactive kiosk permits visitors to explore the background and significance of artifacts via touch screen. Visitors can find and learn about individual objects, or choose a specific motivation to explore in a narrative tying together multiple objects from the array.

Visitors can engage more directly with the notion of conflicting and contested future visions of life in space at the gallery’s Conversation Station. A striking, table-like media piece, it invites visitors to metaphorically pull up a chair and explore a range of viewpoints about space. Three vertical screens present rotating panels of speakers in a format not unlike a teleconference. Posed with a question such as “What would you miss most if you left Earth?” or “Who should profit from space?” visitors will encounter three recorded perspectives. These might be from astronauts, scientists, artists, policymakers, or even middle schoolers. After hearing contrasting viewpoints—which demonstrates that there are multiple ways to understand space—the visitor will vote on which perspective they found most compelling. 

Situated across from the art wall (which will display works from the Museum’s extensive collection of space art), the gallery’s Presentation Space connects in-gallery artifacts to ongoing conversations in the space industry. It also offers a location for extended discussions with visiting astronauts, scientific experts, and movers in the space industry. During normal Museum hours, the giant screen projects a range of perspectives on human space activity. Maps of global launch sites and national space agency locations remind visitors of the truly global scale of human space activities. Featured headlines of recent space news convey the immediacy of space industry activities, while spotlights of “artifacts in action” show video clips of gallery objects in operation. Excerpts from classic and contemporary science fiction media depictions of space feed into data visualizations of visitor responses to the Conversation Station. Visitors can see how their responses to the interactive compare with those of previous Museum guests. 

For in-gallery programming, the screen activates into a presentation stage where speakers can interact with a seated audience. The forum-like space enables conversations sparked by gallery exhibits to manifest as actual, in-person dialogues among Museum speakers, event visitors, and virtual audiences. 

As visitors depart the gallery, they again encounter the painted questions at the exits. “What Futures Do You Imagine?” hopefully takes on a new valence after visitors have experienced all that the gallery has to offer. The Museum hopes visitors take the invitations for discussion they encountered inside the gallery to the outside world by continuing the conversation with friends, family, and themselves. There are many possible futures humans may create as humanity moves beyond Earth into outer space, and they all begin with individuals asking “who?” “what?” and “why?” 

Andrew Meade McGee is a historian of science and technology who serves as curator of computing at the National Air and Space Museum. He oversees the Museum’s collection of computers, aerospace electronics, and devices related to guidance, navigation, and control in spaceflight. McGee specializes in the policy, economic, social, and environmental frameworks that shaped modern information technologies.

Futures in Space is generously supported by Diane Williams Murphy

This article is from the Summer 2025 issue of Air & Space Quarterly, the National Air and Space Museum's signature magazine that explores topics in aviation and space, from the earliest moments of flight to today. Explore the full issue.

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