All Stories

 It’s Halloween eve, 1938, and you're listening to the radio when you hear a breaking news bulletin that there's been a Martian attack!... On New Jersey? Obvious spoiler: there was no Martian attack that night. But there was a radio play — a performance of Orson Welles’ adaptation of “War of the Worlds” by H.G. Wells.

It has been 10 years since the high-altitude balloon flight of Felix Baumgartner in the Red Bull Stratos capsule and his exhilarating return to Earth. Baumgartner landed safely back on Earth after 4 minutes and 20 seconds, cementing his place in the history of lighter-than-air flight.

Conservator Rachel Greenberg reflects on the conservation and restoration of a 30-foot parabolic antenna that is part of a full-scale engineering model of the Applications Technology Satellite-6 (ATS-6). Read about the large umbrella-shaped antenna that now hangs from the ceiling in the new One World Connected gallery.

To honor his passing at the age of 93, curator Jennifer Levasseur reflects on the life of two-time astronaut Gen. James A. McDivitt and his connection with the Museum.

There’s a lot to see and do at the new Air and Space in DC, including eight new exhibitions, hundreds of new artifacts, 50 digital interactives, and more. Not sure where to start? We’ve pulled together 10 can’t-miss highlights from our new galleries.

Seventy-five years ago, U.S. Air Force Captain Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager piloted the Bell X-1 Glamorous Glennis to become the first airplane to fly faster than the speed of sound (Mach 1).

On October 4, 1957 the Soviet Union successfully launched the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik. For some, Sputnik's launch inspired an interest in rocketry and brought many scientists into the space industry. One of those people was Homer Hickam, a high schooler in a small West Virginia mining town who would go on to work for NASA, write a memoir, and inspire a movie. On today’s episode we unpack that film – October Sky.

As Mario Andretti's 1969 Indy 500-winning race car goes on display at the National Air and Space Museum, we reflect on his against-all-odds win and legacy in the motorsports community.

With the Museum’s west-end galleries re-opening, two murals by artist Eric Sloane will be on display. The Earth Flight Environment mural was re-installed in the lobby and a lesser-known mural titled Weather Mural is displayed again for the first time in almost 40 years. Both murals emphasize artist Eric Sloane’s integral role in communicating the relationship between weather and flight through art.

This fall, a spacecraft from a galaxy far, far, away will go on display at the Museum in DC: a full-sized T-70 X-wing Starfighter from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Get a behind-the-scenes look at how it was installed in its new display home.