All Stories

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum is fortunate to care for and display examples of some of the most historically significant human spacecraft, from NASA’s Mercury, Gemini, Apollo capsules, to Space Shuttle Discovery and Scaled Composite’s SpaceShipOne. Soon, the Museum will welcome another important vehicle, which represents a new way of accessing space for non-professional astronauts.

Rockoons—combinations of rockets and balloons—launched notable atmospheric experiments in the mid-20th century. Some rocket clubs and private companies are beginning to try using them again today.

In the 1930s, rocketry was basically a joke among the scientific establishment in the US, but that didn't stop a rag tag group out of Pasadena from trying to build rockets. 

One of the icons of the Museum was the black-and-white German V-2 ballistic missile. Ever since the building opened in July 1976, it stood in Space Hall, which in 1997 was revised to become Space Race. That rocket will return in a new guise, with green camouflage paint, when the hall reopens in a few years as RTX Living in the Space Age.

Rockets launched the Space Age. They provided the power needed to take spacecraft and people on flights beyond the Earth.

The recent launch of VA261 closes out the Ariane 5 rocket’s 117 launches. Take a look back at Europe’s workhorse launcher and the next generation in Ariane 6. 

Picture the Earth from above. In your mind's eye, what do you see? Today, we have access to air and space technology that lets us see various views of the Earth with ease. 

Project Paperclip was a program that brought German and Austrian engineers, scientists, and technicians to the United States after the end of World War II in Europe.

Although the Artemis I mission won’t have any astronauts riding along, there are other items on board to commemorate the occasion and conduct science to further the Artemis program and other research projects.

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.