National Air and Space Museum
Smithsonian Events Week of 3/9-13: Bones and Lady Bird
Monday, March 9: Written in Bone Forensic LabAfter reading Joe Caputo's piece on the new Written in Bone exhibit, how would you like to try your hand at forensic science? Come to the Natural History Museum where you can get your hands on bona-fide bones and learn how to tell the stories they hide. ...
March 09, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Weekend Events: Step on Up for Kites and Graphic Masters
Friday, March 6: Kite FlyingBelieve me, I have my eye on this year's upcoming kite festival and intend to kick some tail this go round. (Read about our inaugural kite-flying endeavors here.) In the meantime, why not kick back, relax and enjoy story time at the National Air and Space Museum? Come he...
March 06, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Smithsonian Events Week of 3/2-3/6/09: Kiwis, Kites and Bendy Straws
Monday, March 2: Meet a KiwiThe National Zoo is offering an opportunity to meet a kiwi—the famous, endangered icon of New Zealand that bears a striking resemblance to a certain fruit of the same name. Learn about the birds and the conservation efforts being made on their behalf. (See the birth of K...
March 02, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Smithsonian Events Week of 2/23-27: Bourgeois, Phone Booth
Monday, February 23: Featherwork WorkshopYou know what your spring wardrobe needs? Feathers, and lots of 'em! Learn how to make a war bonnet of your very own under the tutelage of Dennis Zotigh. Free, but reservations required. Call 202-633-6644, or email NMAI-GroupReservations@si.edu to reserve yo...
February 23, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Air and Space Museum: The Spacesuit Morgue
Yesterday, I had one of those days when I’m reminded how lucky I am to be working here at Smithsonian. So what did it for me? I saw Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit that he wore to the moon. I saw the gray lunar dust caked to it. And I have to admit, an intense patriotism welled up in me.My guess is that...
February 09, 2009 |
By Megan Gambino
Smithsonian Events Week of 2/9-13: Valentines and Balloons
Monday, February 9: It's a slow week kids, we have nothing special for you. Not that it's hard for you to entertain yourselves with all the wonderful exhibitions on display. Go explore! Then come back here and tell us something new or interesting that you learned in the comments area. We'd love to ...
February 09, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Weekend Events: Celebrate Black History Month
Saturday, February 7: Reading: Nobody Owns the SkyCelebrate Black History Month at the National Air and Space Museum by listening to Nobody Owns the Sky which relates the story of Bessie Coleman, the first African American to become an airplane pilot. Following the reading there will be an art acti...
February 06, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Saucy Saturn Shows Off at Air And Space Museum
We may like Saturn because it's got a ring on it, but there's more to the sixth planet in our solar system than its saucy shape. New images taken by the Cassini and Huygens spacecrafts, which have been zipping around Saturn since 2004, are revolutionizing the way we think about the gas giant and it...
February 04, 2009 |
By Joseph Caputo
Inaugural Balls on the Mall
If you're the socialite who will be hitting up the slew of black tie balls in DC, then you must have a bottomless wallet and a dance card that's loaded to the hilt. Even with tickets selling for a couple hundred bucks a pop on the low end, these events are already sold out. Take a look at all the p...
January 12, 2009 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Smithsonian Events Week of 12/15-21
Monday, December 15: Voila Julia!I don’t think anyone can ever really top Dan Aykroyd’s Julia Child impersonation. This is not to say that actress Nancy Robinette won’t come pretty darn close with her portrayal of the gourmand with the golden palette and a wonderfully infectious joie de vivre. This...
December 15, 2008 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Udvar-Hazy's Six Million Dollar Day
Officials call the plan "Phase II," because the initiative to build another wing on the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center has been in the works since the museum was built and opened in 2003. But even as funds were being raised, the cost of steel and concrete soared.On Tues...
December 04, 2008 |
By Beth Py-Lieberman
Sneak Peek at the film Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Why are we Around the Mall bloggers so excited about the upcoming Dreamworks 20th Century Fox film, Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian, set to be released next May? It’s all about ego. Here we have an opportunity to sit in a darkened theater and nitpick over all the inaccuracies.So, le...
November 28, 2008 |
By Jesse Rhodes
At Udvar-Hazy, Enjoy Holiday Travel Without the Hassle
Last week, three major U.S. airports opened new runways—Chicago O'Hare, Seattle-Tacoma and Washington Dulles International Airport. At Dulles, the new runway reportedly will handle 100,000 more airplanes a year, which translates to an additional three million passengers—and, we hope, fewer delay...
November 25, 2008 |
By Megan Gambino
Beam Me Up, Stardust: Civilian Science Catches on at NASA
When I was about ten years old, I went through a phase where I was obsessed with microscopes. I made a massive slideshow presentation for class called "Blow It Up," for which I examined everything in my house—gray hairs, vegetables, fabric, food—under the harsh light of the microscope. I learned ...
November 07, 2008 |
By Anika Gupta
Bill Viola: The Mind's Eye
Video artist Bill Viola dropped his notes on his way up to the podium last Wednesday night at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. With a shrug, he joked that his lecture—the pages now scrambled—would lack order. But the traditional organization one expects from a story or a narrative is decidedly...
September 16, 2008 |
By Megan Gambino
The Cola Wars. Smear Campaigns in Space?
Sending astronauts into space takes heaps of cash, hours of political wrangling and the kind of engineering prowess that would make Newton weep.Sending soda into space? A similar process, it turns out.This week marks the 23rd anniversary (that's 1985 for those of you who can’t count to 23 on finger...
August 01, 2008 |
By Anika Gupta
A Skydiving Photographer Reveals Almost All, but for One Secret
Having made more than 1,000 skydives, some 600 with a camera, daredevil adventurer Andy Keech has hot-dogged it with the best of adrenaline junkies. He's photographed skydivers boogie boarding and diving through hula hoops mid-air; jumping from single-seat cockpits, having been crouched inside wi...
June 12, 2008 |
By Megan Gambino
It's Plane to See
"In Plane View: Abstractions of Flight," a new exhibition at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum that opened March 21, is a collection of 56 large-format photographs by Carolyn Russo that will toy with your perceptions. These hyper close-ups of aerial icons focus on parts rather than the ...
March 28, 2008 |
By Jesse Rhodes
"I Just Want to Fly"
Ever seen a Thunderbirds’ air show and those daring diamond formations, and wondered what it takes to become one of those pilots? And, even more, what it would it take for a woman to join the ranks? The Thunderbirds formed in 1953, but it took 52 years for a woman to fit the mix. Major Nicole Mala...
March 07, 2008 |
By Megan Gambino
Remembering Greensboro
There’s nothing overtly impressive about the section of a luncheonette counter placed behind glass in a corner of the National Museum of American History’s temporary gallery ("Treasures of American History," on display at the Air and Space Museum while the NMAH gets a makeover).The padded vinyl se...
February 11, 2008 |
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