si.edu

Conserving the Creativity that Saved the Apollo 13 Astronauts

Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise were meant to be the third Apollo crew to journey to the Moon on a lunar landing mission. On April 11, 1970, the Apollo 13 astronauts launched from Kennedy ...
si.edu

10 Cool Things You May Not Know About The Museum's Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird

1. Continuous, Supersonic Afterburner. Ever wonder what causes the diamond pattern in the SR-71 jet engine exhaust? It's due to the extra thrust provided by the afterburner which is actually ...
si.edu

Just Doing Their Jobs

There’s a reason you don’t know the names of the first American women to fly combat missions. The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower tore through the waters of the Persian Gulf on November 15, 1994. On the ...
si.edu

Protecting the Beaches with Balloons: D-Day and the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion

One of the most iconic images of the D-Day invasion was taken shortly after the initial invasion itself. The image features several LSTs (Landing Ship, Tank) beached along the coast of France while ...
si.edu

Astronaut Lingo: What Is "Puffy Head Bird Legs?"

Have you ever hung upside down for a little while? Remember how it felt to have all the blood rush to your head? When astronauts get to space, they experience a very similar sensation. Astronauts have ...
si.edu

Remembering the Death of Lt. Joe Kennedy Jr. and America’s First Combat Drones

Browse our collections, stories, research, and on demand content. A drone B-17, seen a year after the dropping of the first atomic bomb, when it was being evaluated for use in sampling atomic clouds ...
si.edu

Forty Years of Discovery

Visit us in Washington, DC and Chantilly, VA to explore hundreds of the world’s most significant objects in aviation and space history. Free timed-entry passes are required for the Museum in DC. For ...
si.edu

Vinci’s Codex on the Flight of Birds

Leonardo da Vinci created masterpieces of art and sculpture. Equally remarkable, his aggregate achievements in engineering, mathematics, anatomy, geology, physics, music, military technology, ...
si.edu

The Technological Breakthroughs of the Viking Lander

NASA’s Viking 1 lander launched on a 10-month journey to Mars on August 20, 1975. Viking was NASA’s first lander to carry instruments capable of doing chemical or physical analysis. Viking conducted ...
si.edu

The First Space Shuttle: 40 Years Since STS-1

The reusable spaceplane, the Space Shuttle, ushered in a new era of human spaceflight 40 years ago this week with the launch of STS-1 on April 12, 1981. Commanded by space veteran and moonwalker John ...
si.edu

Ten Scientific Discoveries from the Apollo Missions

The Apollo Program was a monumental moment in human history – landing the first human beings on the surface of the Moon. However, the Apollo missions contributed more than putting humans on the Moon, ...
si.edu

Bessie Coleman's Daring Life as The First Licensed Black Woman Pilot

On June 15, 1921, Bessie Coleman received the first pilot’s license issued to an African American woman and to a Native American woman. The license was issued by the Fédération Aéronautique ...