Exhibitions

Who decides who goes to space? Why do we go? And what will we do when we get there? The Futures in Space exhibition will explore the potential near- and long-term futures that may emerge with advances in space exploration technology and enterprise.

The new Aerospace and Our Changing Environment exhibition will focus on how aerospace innovations help us understand climate change while providing opportunities to mitigate and adapt to the problem through new technologies.

From the outset of the Cold War to the present, aviation has redefined military power, geopolitics, and technological development. These monumental developments in aerospace technologies will be on display in the new Modern Military Aviation gallery.

The RTX Living in the Space Age Hall will provide insight into space technologies and infrastructure that are largely invisible to the public but have a profound impact on our daily lives. The exhibition will cover topics from the beginning of the Space Age in the mid-20th century to the present and beyond.

In the Textron How Things Fly exhibition, nearly 50 interactives work together with featured artifacts to communicate the idea that the forces of lift, weight, drag, and thrust guide the design and function of everything that flies. 

Dramatic landscapes of the Moon captured by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC). 

The Air Transportation gallery was renovated and replaced with the America by Air exhibition in 2007.

At the Controls gave visitors an opportunity to view the cockpits of a number of the aircraft and spacecraft in the National Air and Space Museum collections. Many of these historically significant craft are one of a kind, others are well known, even by non-aviation buffs, for significant events in mankind's travel through air and space history.

This gallery depicted the computer revolution in aviation and space. Seven exhibit areas, including many "hands-on" interactive computers, illustrated the primary applications of the computer in aerospace: Design, Aerodynamics, Computer-Aided Manufacture, Flight Testing, Air Operations, Flight Simulators and Space Operations.

Artist Michael Benson manipulates extraordinary images of the Solar System from NASA and other planetary databases in order to present what our eyes might see if we could visit these spectacular places ourselves.