Exhibitions

Learn how rocketry got a boost in the 20th century, altering warfare and taking humans into space.

Learn about the broad range of science performed by vehicles that travel into the Earth's atmosphere and beyond. The relatively young field of space science ranges from Earth observation to planetary exploration to astronomy and astrophysics.

Destination Moon shows how an extraordinary combination of motivations, resources, and technologies made it at long last possible for humans to walk on the Moon.

The Kenneth C. Griffin Exploring the Planets Gallery probes the science and history of our exploration of planets and moons, telling the stories of the diversity of worlds circling our Sun and how exploring those worlds helps enhance our own understanding of Earth.

U.S. National Science Foundation Discovering Our Universe illuminates how the development of new and more precise tools transformed our understanding of the universe.

On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon, while their colleague Michael Collins orbited overhead. This case, installed for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, contains artifacts from that historic journey

Dramatic landscapes of the Moon captured by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC). 

Apollo to the Moon told the historic story of human exploration of the Moon by the United States.

Artist Michael Benson manipulates extraordinary images of the Solar System from NASA and other planetary databases in order to present what our eyes might see if we could visit these spectacular places ourselves.

The ability to see Earth from space has forever changed our view of the planet. We are now able to look at the Earth as a whole, and observe how its atmosphere, oceans, landmasses, and life interact as global systems. Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere are dynamic, changing on timescales of days, minutes, or even seconds. Monitoring the Earth in near real time allows us to get an up-to-date picture of conditions on our planet.

Earth Today presented near real time data of the Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere and biosphere.