Discover stories from work going on inside the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's conservation lab.
Showing 21 - 30 of 32
Story
Apollo 11 Command Module Moves to Virginia
Posted on Dec 23, 2016
This week the Apollo 11 Command Module, Columbia, which carried Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins on their historic trip to the Moon, moved to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. To many of us at the Museum, the move seemed to have miraculously happened overnight. In truth, the move took a team of experts and months of meticulous planning to pull off.
“This is something that’s unlike anything, at least for me, that I’ve ever moved,” said Anthony Wallace, a museum specialist in the Museum’s collections processing unit. Wallace explained that the spacecraft was not as complicated to move as some of the Museum’s aircraft, but the historical significance of the object heightened everyone’s awareness.
Topics: Behind the scenesSpaceflightApollo program
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What’s that Smell? Conserving Apollo 16 Film Transport
Posted on Sep 06, 2016
The Museum periodically performs a thorough, physical check of all our objects. We open panels and cases and closely inspect each object for any sign of deterioration due to light, humidity, vibration, or just the march of time. We always hope there are no surprises. But when conservator Robin O’Hern, gallery inventory coordinator Erin Ober, and their colleagues opened a large chamber in the Apollo to the Moon gallery, they got a shock; an acrid chemical smell.
Topics: SpaceflightTechnology and EngineeringApollo programBehind the scenes
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Conserving a WWII Black Widow Compressor
Posted on Feb 04, 2016
The Museum has been tackling a variety of artifact treatments through its Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF) Triage Project. The goal of the project is to stabilize artifacts as they are moved from the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility to state-of-the-art storage located at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. The triage project addresses urgent issues affecting artifacts such as active corrosion, pest infestation, biological growth, and physical insecurities.
Topics: AviationBehind the scenes
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Comparing Alan Eustace’s Spacesuit with Neil Armstrong’s
Posted on Nov 27, 2015
Our conservation team had the pleasure of hosting Alan Eustace, former Google executive, engineer, and stratospheric explorer, this month in the Emil Buehler Conservation Laboratory. Eustace and his StratEx team are well known for their three world records including one for the highest altitude jump at 41,422 meters (135,899 feet) in 2014. The adventurer was in town giving a lecture about his historic jump and to donate to the Museum the suit, life support, and balloon equipment module he used during the jump.
Topics: SpaceflightApollo programHuman spaceflightBehind the scenesTechnology and Engineering
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Conserving Wiley Post’s Helmet
Posted on Sep 05, 2015
The experimental helmet, worn by famed American aviator Wiley Post to test the limits of high-altitude flying, can normally be seen at the Smithsonian Institution Building (The Castle) on the National Mall in Washington, DC. When white corrosion deposits were noticed on the metal, however, the helmet was removed for examination and treatment. It was sent to the Museum’s Emil Buehler Conservation Laboratory in Chantilly, Virginia.
Topics: AviationEarly flightPeople with disabilitiesTechnology and Engineering
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How do you put on an Apollo spacesuit?
Posted on Aug 07, 2015
Learn how to put on an Apollo spacesuit.
Topics: SpaceflightApollo programHuman spaceflightBehind the scenes
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Houston We Don’t Have a Problem: #RebootTheSuit is Funded, Now What?
Posted on Jul 29, 2015
The Smithsonian’s first-ever Kickstarter campaign to conserve, digitize, and display Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 spacesuit was fully backed in just five days!
Topics: SpaceflightApollo programHuman spaceflightBehind the scenes
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A Triage Treatment for Apollo Biomedical Sensors
Posted on Jul 25, 2015
Much like medical triage, conservation triage analyzes the risk posed to an object and the hazards associated with not taking immediate action. Triage conservators ask questions such as: Can the object be handled safely by staff and researchers? Will the degradation of the object continue if it is not treated immediately? What treatment can we do, with the resources at hand, to keep this object stable as long as possible?
Topics: Apollo programBehind the scenesTechnology and Engineering
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Opening the Best Package Ever!
Posted on Jan 20, 2015
It was particularly timely that during the hustle and bustle of the 2014 holidays, I, along with curators Jennifer Levasseur and Cathleen Lewis, had a very special package to open for the very first time.
Topics: SpaceflightApollo programHuman spaceflightAstronomyMoon (Earth)Behind the scenes
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Breathing New Life into an Old Fabric
Posted on Nov 20, 2013
As previously discussed in Spiral Threads of Corrosion Overtake an Antenna Drive, a one-year conservation triage project is underway to deal with artifacts that are actively deteriorating and require stabilizing treatments prior to being permanently relocated to the new storage facility at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. These artifacts include a wide range of issues to be dealt with by a team of three contract conservators, including active corrosion, mold contamination, pest management, hazardous materials, and physical insecurities.