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Our conservators and curators recently faced an interesting question: Is it practical to retain perishable material and what long-range obligations are required? To find the answers, a collaborative effort was required, allowing for preservation of our collection of space food.

Some of the language once used in the early days of human spaceflight has not kept pace with the evolution of America’s space program. We now use "crewed" or "piloted" instead of "manned," for example. The era of “manned” spaceflight ended long ago, and the continued use of this language diminishes and erases six decades of women’s contributions to spaceflight.

Explore the history of Wonder Woman and the Smithsonian, including how Wonder Woman 1984 was filmed at three Smithsonian museums.

I had to hold back my emotions as I photographed the blue and gold F/A-18C Hornet aircraft approaching the Udvar-Hazy Center on November 18, 2020, by the realization that my photography career had, in some way, just come full circle. My journey began back in 1973 when I had the good fortune of being assigned as the photographer for the U.S. Navy Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Team.

In 2018, a peculiar condition phenomenon was observed on the helmet of Anne Morrow Lindbergh and it was removed from display for examination and conservation. An investigation into the cause of the condition issue is reviewed.

On November 18, 2020, Cmdr. Frank “Walleye” Weisser, USN, a member of the Navy’s Blue Angels flight demonstration team, flew into Dulles International Airport to deliver a McDonnell Douglas F/A-18C Hornet to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

The Douglas DC-3 was once considered by many the greatest airplane of all time. However, although the DC-3 has a flight range of over 1,400 miles, once an aircraft becomes an artifact in our collection, moving it even a few short miles involves a range of complexities. Learn more about the complexities of its recent move!artif

The Archives of the National Air and Space Museum holds three million images in various photographic formats, covering the breadth and depth of the history of aviation and space flight. One such collection is the Herbert Stephen Desind Collection, which covers the history of space flight and exploration.  

Part of the fun of research is getting elbow deep into the original documents that make up the collections of the National Air and Space Museum Archives. But we also understand that it is difficult for many researchers to make in-person visits to the Archives at the Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. As an alternative, you can experience the NASM Archives (and other Smithsonian collections) anywhere through the Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives (SOVA)!

In the latest blog about the preservation of Flak-Bait, conservator Lauren Horelick describes the work being done on the overpaint of the aircraft.