All Stories

Foam 331's new display at the Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center honors first responders 

One of the icons of the Museum was the black-and-white German V-2 ballistic missile. Ever since the building opened in July 1976, it stood in Space Hall, which in 1997 was revised to become Space Race. That rocket will return in a new guise, with green camouflage paint, when the hall reopens in a few years as RTX Living in the Space Age.

John D. “Danny” Olivas grew up in the border city of El Paso, Texas, across the Rio Grande from Mexico. Its population is now 81% Hispanic, the largest Hispanic population of any major city within the United States. Olivas and his extended family have been part of that vibrant community since his great-grandfather migrated from Mexico in 1894.

We’re extending our Hot Barbie Summer by looking back on this gem from season seven.

Foam 331—one of two Oshkosh T-3000 foam-carrying rescue trucks arrived at the Pentagon shorty after American Airlines Flight 77 had impacted the site on September 11, 2001. The efforts of Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority firefighters and their foam trucks in conjunction with the other responding jurisdictions succeeded in suppressing the fire, limiting further loss of life and damage. Foam 331 is now on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center.

Instruments in the Smithsonian collection trace the story of how humans have explored the universe for thousands of years. Join us in taking a look at just a few examples! 

Dr. Guy Bluford launched on the STS-8 mission on August 30, 1983, becoming the first Black American in space. Bluford served as a mission specialist and his jobs were to deploy an Indian communications-weather satellite, perform biomedical experiments, and test the orbiter’s 50-foot robotic arm.

In this episode of AeroEspacial, we're jumping into the past and present of Latino representation in the Star Wars universe.

 En este episodio de AeroEspacial, nos adentramos en el pasado y el presente de la representación latina en el universo de La Guerra de las galaxias.

In 1961, President John Kennedy called on the nation to send a man to the Moon. In 1969, the United States did just that. Today, many are familiar with the story of Neil Armstrong’s first few steps on the Moon (cue the “That’s one small step...” quote), but have you ever questioned why we invested so much time, effort, and national attention in getting there? 

After the competitive short-term goals of human spaceflight had been met in the 1960s, many advocates of space exploration envisioned a permanent human presence in space.