National Air and Space Museum

New reasons to visit the National Air & Space Museum

Museums, Uncategorized

The Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C. has been undergoing a major renovation since 2018, with a completion date set for July 1, 2026, the museum’s 50th anniversary.

In the meantime, fresh new galleries and exhibitions are opening in phases.

Five new exhibitions, the Lockheed Martin IMAX Theater and the museum’s redesigned entrance on Jefferson Drive along the National Mall will open Monday, July 28.

The museum will bring back thousands of artifacts that have been in storage and debut many new ones.

Free timed-entry passes will still be required to visit the museum. And passes for the July 28 opening and beyond will be available on the museum’s website starting June 13.

Here are the galleries that will be opening this year on June 28, 2025 and next year on July 1, 2026, with links to descriptions of the upgrades and key artifacts to be featured.

We’re looking forward to seeing some favorites, including Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed 5B Vega (above) in which she set two records, and the Spirit of St. Louis, below.

“Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall”

“Futures in Space”

“Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight”

“World War I: The Birth of Military Aviation”

Allan and Shelley Holt Innovations Gallery

Galleries opening July 1, 2026:

“Textron How Things Fly”

“At Home in Space”

“RTX Living in the Space Age Hall”

“Jay I. Kislak World War II in the Air”

“Modern Military Aviation”

“U.S. National Science Foundation Discovering Our Universe”

Flight and the Arts Center

(Images courtesy of the National Air and Space Museum)

Frontier Airlines has Taylor Swift tickets + more travel tidbits

Contests, ,

Ready for the weekend?

Listen to a podcast series about the role of Latino history and culture in aviation and space. Take an airport art tour. And enter Frontier Airlines’ sweepstakes to win a trip to attend a Taylor Swift concert.

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum has launched “AeroEspacial,” a limited series of its “AirSpace” podcast that focuses on stories of Latino history and culture at the heart of aviation and space.

The four-part series is being produced in both English and Spanish and follows the museum’s 5-part “QueerSpace” series, which was released in February 2022.

Here’s the “AeroEspacial” Episode Schedule

  • July 13: In the early 1960s, thousands of unaccompanied children fled Cuba by plane, moving to the United States on visa waivers from the U.S. government. This episode explores the role of aviation in Operation Pedro Pan.
  • July 27: Arecibo Observatory is the pride of Puerto Rico’s science community. Following the devastating collapse of the observatory’s radio telescope, this episode explores the history, science and social importance of Arecibo.
  • Aug. 10: Latino Futurist artists use their mediums to imagine futures unlike the present, using art to create a society that is whole and inclusive in a way reality is not. This episode explores art from Latino creatives at the intersection of space and culture.
  • Aug. 24: In recent expansions of the Star Wars universe, Latino actors and storylines have taken center stage. From Arturito to “Andor,” this episode explores the past and present of Latino representation in Star Wars.

Here’s the QueerSpace podcast list:

Art tour at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport

 Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP) now has a virtual art tour that highlights the airport’s art collection of 17 two-dimensional pieces of art and three-dimensional sculptures, all representing the themes of textiles, technology, and water.

There are QR codes located near each art piece in the terminal that link to an audio description of the work, information about the artists, and the significance of the artwork within the region. The art tour is also accessible via the GSP airport website.

Taylor Swift fan? Frontier Airlines is giving away two tickets

Frontier Airlines has launched a sweepstakes to give away tickets to Taylor Swift’s August 7 The Eras Tour show at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA.

The winner will receive two concert tickets, two roundtrip flights, two nights of lodging, and $500 in spending money.

https://twitter.com/FlyFrontier/status/1679522662245101568?s=20

See Neil Armstrong’s space suit at the ballpark

Space, Uncategorized, , , , ,
At the U.S. Naval Air Material Center in Philadelphia, a player swings a baseball bat in a B.F. Goodrich Mark IV spacesuit. Courtesy Smithsonian Institution

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing, the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum has launched “Apollo at the Park,” a project that will place 15 replica statues of Neil Armstrong’s iconic Apollo 11 spacesuit in major league ballparks across country.

National Park in Washington, D.C. got its statue this week.

Here are the rest of the team parks where statues will appear this summer at part of Apollo at the Park.

  • Atlanta Braves
  • Boston Red Sox
  • Chicago Cubs
  • Cleveland Indians
  • Cincinnati Reds
  • Colorado Rockies
  • Detroit Tigers
  • Houston Astros
  • Minnesota Twins
  • New York Yankees
  • Pittsburgh Pirates
  • San Francisco Giants
  • Seattle Mariners
  • Tampa Bay Rays

What’s the connection between space and baseball and that photo above? According to the Smithsonian:

“In the late 1950s, workers at the U.S. Naval Air Material Center in Philadelphia took to a makeshift field in some interesting uniforms — B.F. Goodrich Mark IV spacesuits. The game was staged as a flexibility demonstration for the spacesuit.  The final score of the baseball game is unknown, but the Mark IV would evolve to become the original Project Mercury spacesuit, a definite home run!“

And for stats fans, the National Air & Space Museum offer this:

*A ballpark stadium seat is roughly the same size at the Apollo 11 seat that Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins sat in for three days on their journey to the moon.

*The Apollo 11 landing site, Tranquility Base, and the lunar area that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin explored is roughly the size of a baseball diamond.

Get ready for Star Trek’s 50th anniversary

Exhibits, Museums, ,

Star_Trek_Gallery at EMP. Brady Harvey_ EMP Museum

The 50th anniversary of the airing of the first Star Trek episode on TV is coming up on September 8 and there are a wide array of parties and special events lined up to mark the day. I’ve got a round-up of those in the works for CNBC, but in the meantime, here are two Star Trek-themed museum exhibits you can visit right now to get in the mood.

In Seattle, the EMP Museum is hosting Star Trek: Exploring New Worlds, an artifact and prop-filled exhibition that offers a unique view of the show.

Star Trek Costumes _Brady Harvey_EMP Museum

And in Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum recently put the restored model of the USS Enterprise used in all the TV episodes back on display.

Star Trek USS Enterprise from National Air and Space Museum

More hidden museum treasures

Museums, ,

In a previous post, I shared a few of the hidden museum treasures I included in a slide show I put together for Bing Travel: fleas in a hazelnut inside a matchbox, a quilt made from Ku Klux Klan masks and a glass Portuguese man of war.  You can see those items here.

Here are few more:

This mounted skull, at Alaska’s Anchorage Museum, was labeled by the donor as the “first known Alaskan atomic victim;” it’s from a walrus supposedly killed when Russians exploded an atomic bomb near Siberia in about 1953. Exhibited briefly at the museum in 1966, the skull was put away over concerns that it was radioactive. When tested in 2000, no radiation was found, but the walrus stays in storage.

The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., has more than 1,000 objects in its spacesuit collection, including most of the suits, gloves, boots and helmets worn during the Apollo, Gemini and Mercury missions. Built to withstand space — but not time — many now-fragile spacesuits are kept in storage facilities with special light, temperature and humidity controls. Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 spacesuit, considered the most important spacesuit ever built, has been in storage since 2006.

At the Denver Art Museum, “Linda,” a popular piece of artwork by John DeAndrea made from plastic materials, emerges from storage for a short time every few years. Kate Moomaw, assistant conservator for modern and contemporary art, says, “Deterioration of plastics typically leads to issues like color change, distortions and increased brittleness … so ‘Linda’s’ time on view is rationed out. … When not on display, ‘Linda’ is kept in dark storage.”

You can see the full slide show here.
I’m working on a book on this same topic – so if you know of museum that has a hidden treasure you’d like to nominate, please drop me a note.

(All photos courtesy of the respective museums.)

NASA: savvy art collector

Air Travel, Art, Exhibits, Space, , , , , ,

Turns out NASA hasn’t been focusing all its energy on poking around in space.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has also been creating a unique and, now, very valuable art collection.

Chirs and Batty Explore Space, by Willam Wegman

Chip and Batty Explore Space, by William Wegman. Courtesy NASA Art Program

 

It started back in 1962 with the creation of the NASA Art Program and ever since then the agency has been inviting well known artists to document the space program.

The work includes paintings, drawings photographs, sculptures and other media by the likes of Annie Leibovitz, Nam June Paik, Robert Rauschenberg, Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol, William Wegman (above) and Jamie Wyeth.

Curious to see what they’ve got? Starting Saturday, May 28, 2011, more than 70 pieces from the collection go on view in Washington, D.C. at the National Air and Space Museum.

Here are a few more samples:
Grissom and Young, by Norman Rockwell

This 1965 painting by Norman Rockwell shows astronauts John Young and Gus Grissom suiting up for the first flight of the Gemini program in March 1965. As in the William Wegman photo above, NASA loaned Norman Rockwell a spacesuit so the work would be as accurate as possible.

Liftoff at 15 seconds by Jack Perlmutter, 1982

Liftoff at 15 seconds by Jack Perlmutter, 1982

Space Shuttle Columbia rises from Kennedy Space Center on its third flight into space, on March 22, 1982.

These and close to 70 other space-related art pieces from NASA’s collection are on display as part of NASA | ART: 50 Years of Exploration at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. May 28 – October 9, 2011.

Thanks, NASA!

What I’m watching, reading..instead of working

Air Travel, Airlines, Airplanes, aviation, Aviation history, Exhibits, Fun Stuff, History, Kids, Museums, Space, Sports, Unusual places, , , , , , , , ,

Don’t tell me this hasn’t happened to you.

You have stuff to do.  Deadlines.  Work someone will pay you for if you just, you know, do it.

So you pour a cup of coffee and sit down at the computer.

But then, dang, the Internet happens.

Here’s a bit of what got me distracted today.

Air New Zealand posted time-lapse video footage of its first new domestic A320 being built and painted with all black livery.

The paint job has something to do with the All Blacks rugby team, so of course I had to visit that site and then the Small Blacks site as well.

As long as I was visiting the Air New Zealand site, I had to check in on what that wild and crazy furry creature, Rico, was up to. I found this reel of bloopers.

A quick check of email and Twitter sent me off in new directions.

Florida’s Dali Museum was opening in its snazzy new building in St. Petersburg, FL. And as someone who first came upon that museum collection, by accident, when it shared space with a factory in Cleveland, Ohio, I of course had to visit.

While there, I came across this clip of Salvador Dali as a guest on the old TV show, What’s My Line?

Then, of course, it was time to check email and Twitter and catch up on my RSS feed.

A blog post by the folks at the  Smithsonian Air and Space Museum – 5 Cool Things at the Udvar-Hazy Center You May Have Missed – caught my eye because the Udvar-Hazy Center is just down the road Dulles International Airport.

And then I really got tangled up in the web. A comment on the museum blog post mentioned Anita, “the spider from Skylab.”  I didn’t know about Anita so had to follow that thread.

It turns out that Anita and a companion spider, Arabella, were part of an experiment flown on Skylab, a space station launched in May 1973.

According the Smithsonian website:

Scientists and students interested in the growth, development, behavior, and adaptation of organisms in weightlessness provided a variety of biology experiments for flight in the orbital research laboratory. A common Cross spider, “Anita” participated in a web formation experiment suggested by a high school student. The experiment was carried out on the Skylab 3 mission, which lasted 59 days from July 28-September 25, 1973. Astronauts Alan Bean, Jack Lousma, and Owen Garriott carried out the scientific research in space, reported the results, and returned this specimen at the end of their mission. NASA then sent Anita, a companion spider “Arabella,” and the experiment equipment to the Museum.

Anita is on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center.

Anita Skylab Space Station spider

Arabella is in storage.

Free admission this weekend at more than 100 museums

Airplanes, Art, aviation, Aviation history, Exhibits, Museums, , , , ,

On the first weekend of every month more than 100 museums, zoos and attractions around the country offer free admission to anyone with a Bank of America card as part of the Museums on Us program.

Visiting one of the participating venues is a great way to stretch a weekend entertainment budget and a good excuse to get acquainted with the work of a new artist or get reacquainted with a favorite animal at your local zoo.

One place on the list this month is the Wichita Art Museum in Kansas, which is hosting a traveling exhibition from the National Air and Space Museum through the end of September.

In Plane View: Abstractions of Flight features 56 large-format photographs by Carolyn Russo showcasing the elegance and beauty of airplane design.  For example, this photo shows grooves in the exhaust cone of the North American X-15.

In Plane View Exhibit at Wichita Art Museum

Can’t make it to Kansas? When the exhibit leaves the Wichita Art Museum, it will travel to the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia and then, in January 2011, to the Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences in Peoria, Illinois.

You might also take advantage of the Museums on Us program to get free admission to the Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan (Saturday only), where the 15 planes in the Heroes of the Sky exhibit includes this 1926 Fokker Trimotor used by Richard Byrd in his attempt to be the first to reach the North Pole by plane.

Ford Fokker at Henry Ford Museum

According to the museum notes:

Because Edsel Ford funded Byrd’s trip to the Arctic, the plane was named for his daughter, Josephine. Tony Fokker, the manufacturer, wanted to be sure no one mistook the plane for a Ford, so he painted the giant “FOKKER” on the wings and fuselage. There’s no heater in this plane, so temperatures inside the cabin could have easily reached -50° F while flying through the Arctic sky.


Museum Monday: Looking for Lindbergh

Airplanes, aviation, Aviation history, Exhibits, Museum Monday, Museums, ,

There are more than 700 aviation and space-related museums in this country.

Each Monday we profile one of them. Eventually we’ll hit them all.

This week: Looking for Lindbergh

Charles Linbergh

Aviator and explorer Charles Lindbergh died on August 26th back in 1974, so it’s as good a time as any to take a look at some of the museums around the country that display items relating to Lucky Lindy.

First stop: The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., which displays Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis airplane in the Milestones of Flight Gallery.

(Photo by Eric Long/NASM, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution)

Next stop: The Missouri History Museum, which has an ongoing exhibition dedicated to Charles Lindbergh’s life. The exhibit includes some of the medals and gifts that Lindbergh loaned to the Missouri Historical Society for ten days back in 1927, shortly after the famed aviator completed the first solo, transatlantic flight.

Lindbergh, Missouri History Museum

Crocheted, stuffed airplane made for Charles Lindbergh

“The Missouri Historical Society exhibited the items on top of the archaeological cases in an attempt to display the items as quickly as possible. The exhibition opened on June 25, 1927, and a local newspaper estimated that 116,000 people viewed the Lindbergh items during the first four days of the exhibition. The exhibition’s popularity led to Lindbergh agreeing to extend the loan of the collection; five years later, Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, donated the extensive collection to the Missouri Historical Society.”

There are plenty of other museums around the country that display a community’s link to Lindbergh, but for today our final stop will be the Stanley King Collection of rare Charles Lindbergh commemorative memorabilia at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center down the road from Washington Dulles International Airport.

Stanley King Lindbergh collection

(Photo by Eric Long/NASM, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution)

Do you have a favorite aviation or space-related museum you’d like others to know about? If you do, please write a note about it below and it may be featured on a future edition of Museum Monday here on StuckatTheAirport.com

Free stuff: Win one of 40 free trips in Virginia.

Free Stuff, History, , , ,

To mark the 40th anniversary of the state’s “Virginia is for Lovers” marketing campaign, Virginia tourism officials are giving away 40 trips in 40 weeks.

Each has a different theme. And as far as I can tell even the grand prize options don’t include airfare.  But if you live out that way or win a prize and can get over there, it seems like a lot of fun and definitely worth sending in an entry.

For Stuck at the Airport fans, note that the first week’s prize, which will be given away on February 20th, 2009, has an aviation theme.   Activities center around Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Va.

The prize package includes two night’s lodging at a Hyatt Place hotel, a ride in a Biplane, and a private tour of the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, just down the road from Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD).

NASM: the Spirit of St. Louis in the GFallery 104

(The Spirit of St. Louis, the plane Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic in 1927, is one of the aviation treasures on  display at the museum. Courtesy: Smithsonian Institution.)

I’m holding out for Trip #27: it includes a chance to be a judge at the Chincoteague’s annual Oyster Festival – and hopefully lots of oysters.

Enter the Virginia is for Lovers sweepstakes here.

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