All Stories

Many books have been written and movies made about the possibility of humans colonizing Mars. Some include descriptions of growing food in habitats or even changing the Martian climate via “terraforming” to enable large scale agriculture. But how realistic is it to think that Earth plants could grow unprotected on Mars today?

In the 1930s, rocketry was basically a joke among the scientific establishment in the US, but that didn't stop a rag tag group out of Pasadena from trying to build rockets. 

When it comes to choosing a do-it-yourself project, Adam Savage doesn’t go for the easy stuff—he builds his own spacesuit.

For twenty years Mars Rovers and Orbiters have worked to unlock the secrets of the Red Planet. This excerpt from curator Matt Shindell's book For The Love of Mars tells the tale.

The National Air and Space Museum has some 270 complete pressure-suits in its collection. Their evolution tells the broader story of NASA’s efforts to send humans into space.

AirSpace is looking up! We're exploring how we hang really, really big, priceless artifacts from the ceiling in the museum.

The Peregrine test model is the first commercial lander in the Museum's collection 

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

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! 

Rockets launched the Space Age. They provided the power needed to take spacecraft and people on flights beyond the Earth.