National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, usually known as the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., United States, dedicated to space exploration. Founded in 1946 as the National Air Museum and its main structure on the National Mall, near L’Enfant Plaza, was dedicated to the public in 1976. It received roughly 6.2 million visitors in 2018, making it the sixth most visited museum on the planet and the second most visited museum in the United States.
Due to extended closures and a decrease in international tourism as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, museum attendance fell to 267,000 visitors in 2020. Near the entrance to the museum is a model of the starship Enterprise from the science fiction television series Star Trek: The Original Series, as well as the Columbia Command Module from Apollo 11, a Friendship 7 capsule flown by John Glenn, Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis, and the Wright brothers Wright Flyer airplane. The museum also contains the Columbia Command Module from Apollo 11, a Friendship 7 capsule flown by John Glenn, and the Bell X-1, which broke the sound barrier.
At the National Air and Space Museum, researchers study the history and science of aviation, space flight, planetary science, geology, and geophysics on Earth’s surface. Almost all of the space and aircraft on display are either originals or backups of the original craft. It operates an annex at Dulles International Airport, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, which opened in 2003 and has a total floor space of approximately 760,000 square feet (71,000 m2). After shifting restoration and archive work into the Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar at the Udvar-Hazy annex, the museum completed restoration of its collection at the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Suitland, Maryland, beginning in 2014.
Some of the items in the National Air and Space Museum’s collection date back to the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The Chinese Imperial Commission donated a group of kites to the Smithsonian Institution after Smithsonian Secretary Spencer Fullerton Baird persuaded exhibitors that shipping them home would be too expensive. The Chinese Imperial Commission donated the kites to the Smithsonian because shipping them home would be too expensive. It was in 1989 that the Smithsonian added the Stringfellow steam engine, which was intended for aircraft. It was the first component actively acquired by the Smithsonian and is now part of the current NASM collection.
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The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, usually known as the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., United States, dedicated to space exploration. Founded in 1946 as the National Air Museum and its main structure on the National Mall, near L’Enfant Plaza, was dedicated to the public in 1976… Read More
