Stories of daring, stories of technological feats, stories of prevailing against the odds ... these are the stories we tell at the National Air and Space Museum. Dive in to the stories below to discover, learn, and be inspired.
Showing 1 - 10 of 91
February 27, 2025
The oldest Earth rocks we have are 4.3 billion years old, and samples we've brought back from the Moon are even older. But what what does that have to do with craters on Mars?
February 25, 2025
James E. Martin, an electronics technician who worked in the RCA Space Center, helped build the Ranger 7 spacecraft’s camera system, which sent back over 4,000 detailed images in less than 17 minutes before crashing into the Moon in 1964.
November 14, 2024
A moon is a planetary body that goes around another planetary body. Usually, this is one or more moons going around a planet, but it doesn’t have to be a planet. In Star Wars, the Death Star is not a moon because it isn’t a naturally occurring satellite: the International Space Station, the Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter, or any of the telecommunications satellites we rely on in low Earth orbit are satellites, but are not moons.
September 23, 2024
Recent discoveries and news in aviation and space.
September 12, 2024
It's a bird? It's a plane? Its a guy pretending to be a bird?? We have a very odd aircraft in the collection.
August 16, 2024
This dark side is also known as the farside (and the side facing Earth is called the nearside). The phrase "dark side of the Moon" is used to refer to something mysterious or unknown. For most of human history we did not know what the farside of the Moon looked like. It wasn’t until 1959 when the Soviet Union launched the Luna 3 spacecraft that we got our first look at the farside.
August 08, 2024
Over six missions, the Apollo astronauts collected and brought back 842 pounds of Lunar samples. Who decides what rocks go where? And how did the National Cathedral get a rock to put in a stained glass window??
July 09, 2024
When the Chandra X-Ray Observatory launched 25 years ago, it showed us our universe in a whole new light (literally).
March 20, 2024
What’s new in aviation and space. The latest on the search for Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra.
March 13, 2024
In 1142 a total solar eclipse with much the same path as the one coming up April 8. It was also the sign in the sky the Seneca needed to join the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, a representative democracy that would govern six tribes below Lakes Erie and Ontario.