Air and Space Museum - Air and Space Museum information and pictures



The National Air and Space Museum, is the most popular of the Washington, DC Smithsonian museums, located on the National Mall that attracts more than nine million visitors a year. This exciting museum, celebrating flight and space, opened in 1976, in a new, modern building designed by the global architectural firm of, Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum. The museum is adorned with the same pink marble, used in the construction of the neoclassical, National Gallery of Art located across the Mall from the Air and Space Museum.

The collections held by the Air and Space Museum are so vast, that another facility, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, was built in nearby Virginia, to house the larger exhibits. Visitors can easily spend days, viewing the many exhibits of airplanes and spacecraft, which fill these two museums.

Early Flight and Space Modules - Exhibits at the National Mall building include, the Apollo 11 command module, Columbia, Charles Lindbergh's, Spirit of St. Louis, used for his famed flight around the globe, the North American X-15, used by Chuck Yeager to break the sound barrier and a nose section of a Boeing jet, which can be entered and explored by visitors. One of the museum’s most prized exhibits is the actual Wright Flyer, which Orville and Wilbur Wright, flew in 1903, on an historic, flight, which was the fist, sustained flight by a pilot in a flyer. The longest flight on that historic day lasted 59 seconds.

The space exhibits are among the most popular, especially with children, and features, an actual rock, taken from the moon that visitors can touch. The Exhibit, Apollo to the Moon, contains countless artifacts from the Apollo moon missions, which feature, a replica of the Saturn V rocket, space food, and actual spacesuits worn by astronauts, during their moon explorations. There is something to interest everyone, in this inspiring exhibit.

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center - The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center holds larger aircraft and other exhibits, too large for the main, National Mall museum building. This Center is massive, with airport hangers, filled with space and flight artifacts. Some of the highlights shown here include, the Enola Gay, the plane that bombed Hiroshima with a nuclear bomb, a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird and the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
Space Shuttle Enterprise
Where is National Air and Space Museum: Independence Ave at 6th Street SW,

How to get to National Air and Space Museum: Subway to L'Enfant Plaza Station(Blue/Orange and Yellow/Green lines) ; Smithsonian Station(Blue/Orange lines)

Opening hours: Daily from 10:00 am - 5:30 pm

Where is Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: 14390 Air and Space Museum Parkway, Chantilly
Opening hours: Daily from 10:00 am - 5:30 pm

Visit the National Air and Space Museum official web site here.

Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center Space Shuttle Enterprise



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jennya says:
Amazing Museum. It is a must for every one visiting Washington to go to the Air and Space Museum. It is overwhelming what our human kind can do.