All Stories

The prototype for the popular Women of NASA LEGO® set joined the Museum’s collection last week, helping tell the story of how Americans are inspired by groundbreakers in aerospace.

Bilbo Baggins journeyed many places in Middle-Earth, but it turns out his quest extends to other planets, too.

Featured in the new film Mission: Impossible — Fallout, the HALO jump is a real—and dangerous—military maneuver that’s been used by special forces teams for decades.

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum has the world’s premier collection of aviation and space artifacts. Less well-known is that the museum also has an outstanding collection of aerospace models.

When a team accomplishes what, at times, seemed impossible, it becomes a victory for all—an entire city or country, or all humankind. We see this in milestones throughout aviation history, and we celebrate those shared victories throughout our Museum. And when a sports team brings a championship to a city that hasn’t seen one in 25 years, the whole city comes out to celebrate. 

Explore some incredible visitor images from our 2001: The Bromicide Fest exhibition. 

We remember Alan L.  Bean, the fourth man to walk on the Moon and the only artist to have visited the Moon.

Parsecs are actually astronomical units—not just in the Star Wars universe—used to measure distance, not time. (Sorry, Han.)

Filmaker and special effects artist Doug Trumbull shares the behind-the-scenes story of 2001: A Space Odyssey's most groundbreaking scenes. 

Tom Wolfe, the author of The Right Stuff (1979), one of the most iconic literary books about spaceflight, died this week.