National Air and Space Museum

Explore satellites used for communications, monitoring the weather, and exploring the Earth.

In March 1962, Administrator of NASA James Webb suggested that artists be enlisted to document the historic effort to send the first human beings to the Moon. The resulting program dispatched artists to NASA facilities with an invitation to paint whatever interested them. Transferred to the National Air and Space Museum in 1975, the NASA art collection remains one of the most important elements of what has become perhaps the world's finest collection of aerospace themed art.

The functions of guidance, navigation, and control are vital to all forms of air and space flight. The Space History collections in this area attempt to reflect that significance and illustrate the breadth of the topic.

The success of aviation has often been due to technologies that are often invisible to the casual observer. Aircraft instruments and aviation electronics (avionics) have played crucial roles in the safety, reliability, and efficiency of flight.

Spaceflight and the use of rockets and missiles is not a uniquely American concept. From the time that the Chinese first harnessed the power of explosive power into rockets, through the dawn of the aviation age, individuals and groups throughout the world pondered on the next stage of flight. This collection explores international innovations in spaceflight.

A selection of military uniforms and personal equipment from World War I to the Cold War, including items worn by General William Mitchell, General Henry "Hap" Arnold, and U-2 pilot Commander William Ecker.

During the Cold Wars, the United States and USSR looked toward space for ways to spy on one another for the purposes of maintaining National Security and technological superiority.

On June 10, 1943, the patent for the ballpoint pen was filed. To celebrate National Ballpoint Pen Day (#BallpointPenDay), we've pulled together writing implements from across our collection. 

The propulsion collection includes reciprocating and rotary internal combustion and gas turbine engines, propellers, and the components and support technologies, or accessories, that deliver the needed air, water, fuel, and oil to an engine.  All of these artifacts reveal the multiple approaches used to improve the performance of the airplane during the 20th century.

Among this collection's highlights are: the world’s best collection of artifacts from American rocket pioneer Robert Goddard, an extensive collection of German World War II missile and rocket artifacts, a large number of American Cold War missiles and launch vehicles, and rocket engines from small thrusters to a gigantic F-1 motor from the Saturn V Moon rocket.

Pioneer aviators became household names and their flights catapulted them into fame and celebrity. The objects of popular culture in the National Collection display everything from ashtrays to wristwatches that reflect the public fascination with aviation and the powerful commercial response to feats of the air.

The Social and Cultural Dimensions of Spaceflight Collection includes over 4500 individual pieces of space memorabilia and space science fiction objects, including toys and games, clothing and stamps, medals and awards, and buttons and pins, as well as comics and trading cards.

The space sciences collection includes objects ranging from engineering models, components, and prototypes to mockups and models representing the full range of scientific activities performed on space vehicles, including both suborbital and orbital satellites, probes, and landers, as well as missions flown into orbits around other celestial bodies, including the moon, other planets, the Sun, and the Earth’s Lagrangian points.

The invention of the balloon struck the men and women of the late 18th century like a thunderbolt. Enormous crowds gathered in Paris to watch one balloon after another rise above the city rooftops, carrying the first human beings into the air in the closing months of 1783. The National Air and Space Museum maintains one of the world's great collections of objects and images documenting and celebrating the invention and early history of the balloon.

The Museum’s collection of 30 World War II-era American military aircraft ranges from propeller-driven trainers, fighters, flying boats, and bombers to the nation’s first generation of jet-powered fighters to take to the air.