All Stories

Launch vehicles require a vast ground-based support system, which is an important part of the stories told at the National Air and Space Museum. Collecting these objects is challenging due to their size and reuse in subsequent programs. Learn more about these artifacts and how Air and Space preserves their ongoing histories.

It’s been nearly 50 years (!) since humans last walked on the Moon.  But NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions will soon return astronauts to the lunar surface.

A conversation with aerospace engineer Dennis Jenkins who works with the space shuttles, relying on his expertise in orbiter construction to ensure their maintenance as museum artifacts. 

The latest news in aviation and space.

During launch, the micrometeoroid shield surrounding the Skylab Workshop ripped loose. Designed to protect the workshop from tiny space particles and the sun's scorching heat, its loss caused sunlight to raise internal temperatures to over 130° F, making the station uninhabitable and threatening foods, medicines, films, and experiments that were onboard. Astronaut Rusty Schweickart was responsible for testing a parasol on Earth and developing procedures for deploying it in space in an effort to save America’s first space station.

The recent announcement of the crew for NASA’s upcoming Artemis II mission in Houston, Texas, featured a major role for Canada. Introduced with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch was Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen. The four astronauts are scheduled to test the Orion spacecraft in high Earth orbit, then make a loop around the Moon—becoming the first human beings to venture into deep space since the Apollo 17 astronauts in December 1972. It is an honor to be selected for this crew, so why would a United States agency give up one of the seats to a Canadian?

In 1969, nearly 600 million people tuned in to watch the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Four of these rapt viewers were a family of Indian immigrants in Delaware. Four months later that family was driving through Ohio and decided to stop and knock on Neil Armstrong’s parent's door.

The Artemis II mission will return humans to the vicinity of the Moon for the first time in over 50 years. And those Moon-faring humans are commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen.  

Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden was NASA's first African American Administrator. He also served in the military and logged over 680 hours in space.

Museum curator emerita Valerie Neal reflects and shares her memories of Space Shuttle Columbia's disaster on the 20th anniversary of STS-107.