All Stories

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

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.

Few people in the air and space community touched as many aspects of what we do here at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum as did Richard H. Truly. His remarkable career in the military, in space, and as a leader blended together an array of experiences, having had the opportunity to impact programs and make decisions, the effects of which linger to this day.

Charles M. Schulz and Walt Disney, the creators of some of the most endearing cartoon characters ever drawn, both found inspiration in the worlds of aviation and space.

Cathleen S. Lewis, a curator in the space history department at the National Air and Space Museum, has written Cosmonaut: A Cultural History, which documents the complicated past of Soviet and Russian human space exploration. 

Frank Borman was one of the great explorers of the 20th century. As commander of Apollo 8, he was one of the first three humans to leave low Earth orbit, travel into deep space, and orbit the Moon. Yet exploring space was not his dream. An Air Force officer, patriot, and ardent Cold Warrior, he wanted to beat the Soviet Union in the Moon race and played a central role in making that happen. 

Space is dangerous. And as long as we've been sending people into space, we've also been thinking about what we can do to make sure they're prepared for it, and make sure they will come home again.

As a physicist, engineer, entrepreneur, and astronaut, Franklin Chang-Díaz has made significant contributions to space exploration. Born in San José, Costa Rica, he developed a passion for science and space at an early age. He moved to the United States to continue his education and achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut and in 1980, NASA selected Chang-Díaz as an astronaut candidate, making him the first Latin American immigrant to become a NASA astronaut.

These companies are taking a faster, cheaper approach to landing on the moon 

A new book by NASA astronaut Tom Jones shares intriguing stories about the agency’s longest-running space exploration program