All Stories

We are pleased to announce that the Sally K. Ride Papers, consisting of over 23 cubic feet (38,640 pages!) of archival material chronicling Ride’s career from the 1970s through the 2010s, have been fully scanned and are available digitally. Air and Space fans can help make them more accessible by transcribing them in the Smithsonian Transcription Center.

Conservation of Michael Collins' razor from the Apollo 11 mission presented conservators with a complex ethical dilemma for deciding the best treatment approach: how to arrest degradation while maintaining the historical elements of the artifact.

In the over 40 years our lunar touchrock has been on display, millions of people have walked through our doors and touched a piece of the Moon. Intrigued by this idea, staff photographer Jim Preston took over 60 photos of visitors touching our little piece of the Moon.

Planetary scientist Emily Martin takes you behind the scenes of a recent field work trip to Iceland. 

Ford v. Ferrari reminds us that the United States, throughout its history, has cultivated a deep-rooted connection with fast-moving technology, whether it is on land, sea, or in the air.

Since its opening, and until recent years, our Zeiss Model VIa optical planetarium projector has brought the wonder of the night sky to countless visitors.

A museum staff photographer reflects on photographing in black and white and learning to see in shades of grey.

To the best of our knowledge, Flak-Bait is the only World War II bomber of its kind to retain the original insulating fabric panels lining the interior of the forward fuselage. To preserve the original fabric, we performed a number of innovative conservation treatments.

Before returning Neil Armstrong's Apollo 11 spacesuit to display in time for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, it underwent extensive conservation and a state-of-the-art display case and mannequin was designed to protect it while on display.

Working with the museum, the Smithsonian's Digitization Program Office 3D scanned Neil Armstrong's spacesuit, helmet, and gloves. The resulting 3D models, which have been fully annotated by the suit’s curator and conservator, are now available.