The Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum maintains the largest collection of historic air and spacecraft in the world. It is also a vital center for research into the history, science, and technology of aviation and space flight, as well as planetary science and terrestrial geology and geophysics.
The Museum has two display facilities. The National Mall building in Washington, D.C. has hundreds of artifacts on display including the original Wright 1903 Flyer, the Spirit of St. Louis, the Apollo 11 command module, and a lunar rock sample that visitors can touch. The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center displays many more artifacts including the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay and Space Shuttle Enterprise.
The Museum currently conducts restoration of its collection at the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Suitland, MD. For years, this facility also displayed many of the Museum's artifacts kept in storage. Only guided tours allowed access to this portion of the collection. The new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center displays most of the aircraft and spacecraft previously stored at Garber, many never seen before in a museum setting. The Center will also eventually become the Museum's primary artifact restoration facility.
The National Air and Space Museum offers a variety of free educational programs for school groups and organized youth groups. Here you will find information on educational activities at the Museum as well as resources provided for classroom learning.
The National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. has hundreds of original, historic artifacts on display, including the Wright 1903 Flyer; the Spirit of St. Louis; the Apollo 11 command module Columbia; and a Lunar rock sample that visitors can touch.
The Museum offers 22 exhibition galleries, the Lockheed Martin Imax Theater, flight simulators, a three-level Museum shop, and a food-court-style restaurant. Docent tours, daily free educational programs, and school group tours and activities are also available.
The Albert Einstein Planetarium presents two shows daily: Cosmic Collisions launches visitors on a thrilling trip through space in a spectacular immersive theater experience. The Stars Tonight offers a relaxing journey through the current night sky. (Varying schedules.)
A favorite gallery for children is How Things Fly - the place for hands-on action including fascinating science demonstrations; paper airplane contests; and 50 exciting interactive devices.
Experience the early history of the airplane - from some of the earliest notions of flying through the first decade of powered flight - in the Early Flight gallery.
Visitors can get a close-up view of the original 1903 Wright Flyer and 170 other related artifacts in The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age. After the exhibition closes, the Flyer will be returned to its usual hanging position in the Milestones of Flight gallery.
The history of human space exploration is detailed in two exhibitions. To learn about the American and Soviet competition, visit Space Race, where artifacts on display include the V2 ballistic missile, a full-size Hubble Space Telescope test vehicle, and the backup Skylab space station that visitors can walk through.
The story of America's effort to land a human on the Moon is told in Apollo to the Moon, where the original space suits worn by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon are on display.
The Museum on the National Mall also features several exhibitions covering Earth and planetary studies. Looking at Earth shows visitors how views of our planet from above have helped us to better understand the Earth. Examples of satellite imagery and aerial photography are on display.
Exploring the Planets highlights the history and achievements of planetary explorations, both Earth-based and by spacecraft. On display here is a full-scale replica of the Voyager spacecraft which traveled to the outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Explore the Universe demonstrates the various methods used by humankind to observe the skies throughout the ages, starting with the naked eye, through telescopes, and finally into the digital age.
Exploring the Planets highlights the history and achievements of planetary explorations, both Earth-based and by spacecraft. On display here is a full-scale replica of the Voyager spacecraft which traveled to the outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Explore the Universe demonstrates the various methods used by humankind to observe the skies throughout the ages, starting with the naked eye, through telescopes, and finally into the digital age.
For details about the many other exhibits at the Museum, click here.
In 2001, the National Air and Space Museum celebrated its 25th anniversary. See the Timeline for a chronology of all major events in the Museum's history. For more facts and figures about the downtown museum, please see the Museum's press kit; for a complete list of the Museum's exhibitions, please see the Exhibitions page.
Begin planning your visit to the Museum on the National Mall, or learn about the National Air and Space Museum's two other sites by selecting from the menu on the left.
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The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum in Washington, D.C., United States, and is the most popular of the Smithsonian museums. It maintains the largest collection of aircraft and spacecraft in the world.[citation needed] It is also a vital center for research into the history, science, and technology of aviation and spaceflight, as well as planetary science and terrestrial geology and geophysics.[citation needed] Almost all space and aircraft on display are originals or backup crafts to the originals.
Because of the museum site's close proximity to the United States Capitol, the Smithsonian Institution wanted a building that would be architecturally impressive but would not stand out too boldly against the Capitol Building. St. Louis-based architect Gyo Obata of Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum accepted the challenge and designed the museum as four simple marble-encased cubes containing the smaller and more theatrical exhibits, connected by three spacious steel-and-glass atria which house the larger exhibits such as missiles, airplanes and spacecraft. The massing of the museum echoes the National Gallery of Art across the National Mall, and uses the same pink Tennessee marble as the National Gallery.[1] Built by Gilbane Building Company, the museum was completed in 1976. The west glass wall of the building is used for the installation of airplanes, functioning as a giant door.[2]
Restoration facility
Main article: Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility
The museum's total collection numbers over 30,000 aviation-related and 9,000 space-related artifacts, and is thus larger than will fit in the main hall. Many of the aircraft are at the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility , also sometimes referred to as the "Silver Hill facility", in Suitland-Silver Hill, Maryland. The facility was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1952 as a storage location for the growing collection of aircraft. It is named for Paul E. Garber, former curator of the collection, and it consists of 32 buildings.
The facility once was open for touring, but all exhibition items are being moved to the museum annex.
[edit] Other facilities
The Museum's archives are divided between the main exhibition building on the Mall and the Garber facility in Suitland. The collections include personal and professional papers, corporate records, and other collections assembled by topic.
The Museum includes the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies (CEPS), which conducts geological and geophysical research related to all the planets in the solar system. CEPS participates in programs that involve remote-sensing satellites and unmanned probes.
The museum also has a research library, at the site of the main museum building.
[edit] History
Wright Flyer hanging in the museum in 1982Originally called the National Air Museum when it was formed on August 12, 1946 by an act of Congress,[3][4] some pieces in the National Air and Space Museum collection date back to the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia after which the Chinese Imperial Commission donated a group of kites to the Smithsonian. The Stringfellow steam engine intended for aircraft was accessioned into the collection in 1889, the first piece actively acquired by the Smithsonian now in the current NASM collection.
After the establishment of the museum, there was no one building that could hold all the items to be displayed. Some pieces were on display in the Arts and Industries Building, some were stored in a shed in the Smithsonian's South Yard that came to be known as the "Air and Space Building", and the larger missiles and rockets were displayed outdoors in "Rocket Row."
The combination of the large numbers of aircraft donated to the Smithsonian after World War II and the need for hangar and factory space for the Korean War drove the Smithsonian to look for its own facility to store and restore aircraft. The current Garber Facility was ceded to the Smithsonian by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in 1952 after the curator Paul E. Garber spotted the wooded area from the air. Bulldozers from Fort Belvoir and prefabricated buildings from the United States Navy kept the initial costs low.
The space race in the 1950s and 1960s led to the renaming of the Museum to the "National Air and Space Museum", and finally congressional passage of appropriations for the construction of the new exhibition hall[citation needed], which opened July 1, 1976 at the height of the United States Bicentennial festivities. The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center opened in 2003, funded by a private donation.
The museum will receive several artifacts, including a former camera, from the Hubble Space Telescope that were taken to Earth after the May 2009 space shuttle mission STS-125 that extended the life of the telescope
[edit] Directors
Carl W. Mitman was the first head of the museum, under the title of Assistant to the Secretary for the National Air Museum, heading the museum from 1946 until his retirement from the Smithsonian in 1952.[5]
The following have been, or acted as, Director of the museum:
Philip S. Hopkins, 1958-1964[5]
S. Paul Johnston, 1964-1969[5]
Frank A. Taylor (acting), 1969-1971[5]
Michael Collins, 1971-1978;[6]
Melvin B. Zisfein (acting), 1978-1979[6]
Noel W. Hinners, 1979-1982[6]
Walter J. Boyne (acting 1982–1983, director 1983-1986)[6]
James C. Tyler (acting), 1986-1987[6]
Martin O. Harwit, 1987-1995[6]
Donald D. Engen, 1996-1999[7]
John R. Dailey, 2000-present[7]
[edit] Controversies
Controversy erupted in 1994 over a proposed exhibit commemorating the atomic bombing of Japan on its 50th anniversary. The centerpiece of the exhibit was the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped the A-bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Veterans’ groups, backed by some Congressmen, argued strongly that the exhibit’s inclusion of Japanese accounts and photographs of victims insulted airmen.[8] Also disputed was the predicted number of fatal US casualties that would have resulted from an invasion of Japan, had that been necessary. In the end, the museum’s director, Martin O. Harwit, was forced to resign, and the exhibit was radically reduced to “the most diminished display in Smithsonian history." [9]
Scientific clarity
Throughout the museum's displays, the Air and Space Museum presents all thrust levels for rocket and jet engines in mass units (kilograms or pounds) rather than force units (newtons or pounds-force). This usage is at odds with common scientific/engineering practice presented in NASA SP 7012.
看到你这个比较晚，耽误LZ了，不好意思呀
