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National Air and Space Museum

A set of Star Wars toys manufactured for the release of The Empire Strikes Back, 1980. This set was donated to the Museum in 1997 from a private donor, Michael O’Harro. Credit: Eric Long, National Air and Space Museum.

Star Wars: A Merchandising Empire

How Star Wars became a "merchandising empire" and one of the biggest box office hits of all time.

Backup spacecraft for Telstar, the world's first active communications satellite. Telstar 1 began an era of live international television. After its launch on July 10, 1962, it relayed television images between the United States and France and England.

That’s no moon. (It's also not the Death Star.)

That’s no Moon, it’s a space station—or, rather, a satellite. With its spherical shape and piecemeal construction, it’s easy to see similarities between the Telstar satellite on display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and the infamous Death Star of the Star Wars films. Aside from a passing resemblance in design, both pieces of technology also address a larger question that has been a focal point for humankind in reality and fantasy: what does space mean for humanity?

An R2-D2 action figure issued for The Empire Strikes Back. Credit: National Air and Space Museum.

How Star Wars Revolutionized Entertainment

Three ways Star Wars changed the entertainment business.

Amelia Earhart flew this Lockheed 5B Vega solo across the Atlantic and non-stop across the United States -- both firsts for a woman. Earhart left a greater legacy than her many record flights. She also helped promote aviation and air travel, especially among women, and proved that a woman could handle an airplane as well as a man.

Transforming the Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight Gallery

Pioneers of Flight was one of many galleries that showcased aviation pioneers, but it focused on its own specific time frame. Museum curators initially conceived Pioneers of Flight as a second-tier Milestones of Flight), the gallery that presented the most iconic and historic aerospace artifacts of the Smithsonian’s collections, like the 1903 Wright Flyer, the Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis, and Mercury Friendship 7 and Apollo 11 command module Columbia. Pioneers’ location in Gallery 208 was offset on the second floor with its mezzanine overlooking Milestones, thus offering a natural affinity and progression between the two galleries. Don Lopez, assistant director for aeronautics, selected the aircraft for the gallery, in consultation with Aeronautics Department curators, choosing specific ones that flew in the 1920s and 1930s. For him and his contemporaries, this was the time that aviation came of age after the initial years of experimentation in aviation. In the exciting 1920s and difficult but breathtaking 1930s, aviation proved itself useful, and became integral to society and a leader in technology and design. Lopez’s Pioneers of Flight gallery reflected many of his 1920s childhood memories and his delight in following aviators into the air (Lopez became an U.S. Air Force ace in World War II).

The aircraft that enjoyed what was perhaps the longest and most successful career in air racing history was Steve Wittman's Chief Oshkosh, known in the post-World War II era as Buster. From 1931 until its retirement in 1954, this midget racer set records and took numerous trophies in class races and free-for-alls

The Many Lives of Buster the Air Racer

Since the earliest days of flight, air racing has been an exciting motorsports activity. The National Air and Space Museum has in our collection many of the aircraft that made history by winning races and setting records. Jimmy Doolittle’s R3C-2, Roscoe Turner’s Meteor, Darryl Greenamyer’s Conquest I, the Mahoney family and Don Peck’s Sorceress, and Jon and Patricia Sharp’s Nemesis siblings, the DR 90 and NXT, stand out as achievements of design, skill, ingenuity, and speed. Another clear winner is Steve Wittman’s Special 20 Buster that was on display at the Museum on the National Mall for decades until the Golden Age of Flight exhibition recently closed as part of our multi-year renovation. Buster lived two lives in air racing and proved to be an inspiration for an entire class of air racers.

Return-to-Earth specialist Poppy Northcutt during the Apollo program.

Calculating Trajectories and Breaking Boundaries During Apollo

In the late 1960s, Poppy Northcutt was a return-to-Earth specialist with TRW, working on a contract with NASA on one of the most exciting adventures of the 20th century: humanity’s quest for the Moon. With computer programming skills and a degree in mathematics, she worked with her team at TRW on the development of the return-to-Earth program. "Mainly I worked on developing return-to-Earth trajectories that would be used when they were in the vicinity of the Moon," Poppy said in a recent phone interview. "It was designed from the get-go to be a program that would calculate in real-time a return to Earth—whether you are talking about good circumstances or bad." When NASA accelerated the schedule for Apollo 8, the first mission to orbit the Moon, it meant that development of a critical part of that mission, the return-to-Earth software, would need to be accelerated as well. Before launch, the software needed to undergo testing and the flight controllers needed training on the program. To meet the deadline, Poppy was assigned to work in the Mission Control center directly with the retrofire officers, becoming the first female engineer in Mission Control.

Artist Rendering The Nation of Speed exhibition will recount humankind’s desire to become the fastest on land, sea, air, and space in the pursuit of commerce, power, and prestige. This new gallery will be a portrait of human ingenuity and will explore how the pursuit of speed has shaped American culture and our national identity.

Ford v. Ferrari Reminds Us That We Are a Nation of Speed

When theatergoers go to their local cinemas this weekend to see the new film Ford v. Ferrari, they’ll be watching on the big screen a retelling of a legendary rivalry from motorsports history. Ferrari race cars dominated international sports car endurance racing in the early 1960s, which included winning the epic 24-hour race at Le Mans in France every year from 1960 to 1965. Looking to find increased financial support for his racing program, Enzo Ferrari entertained a takeover from the Ford Motor Company, but rejected it at the last minute. Rebuffed, but not deterred, Ford embarked upon its own development program that created the celebrated GT40 race cars that won Le Mans from 1966 to 1969. Those victories cemented Ford’s reputation as an international motorsports powerhouse and bolstered the reputations of the individuals involved, including the leading characters of the film, Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles, played by Matt Damon and Christian Bale respectively, as racing heroes.

Poster for the Aeronauts. Courtesy Amazon Studios.

The Aeronauts Brings the Bravado of Balloon Flight to the Big Screen (Artistic License Included)

The new film The Aeronauts truly captures the excitement of ballooning in the 19th century, even if it makes a few historical errors along the way. Ballooning expert Tom Paone explores the history behind the film.

Zeiss Projector in the Albert Einstein Planetarium at the National Air and Space Museum, weeks before being deinstalled.

Farewell to the Zeiss Planetarium Projector

Since its opening, and until recent years, our Zeiss Model VIa optical planetarium projector has brought the wonder of the night sky to countless visitors. The Zeiss Company no longer services the over 40 year-old model, and though its stars are as sharp as ever, and its skies deep in their dramatic blackness, its celestial motors have become weary, so it has been retired in favor of an ever-improving digital projection system that offers many advantages to meet modern programming needs. The Albert Einstein Planetarium theater itself is also closing as our multi-year renovation progresses through the Museum, but it will eventually reopen as a fully digital experience. Now that we have said goodbye to its original projector, the Zeiss Model VIa, the question is, of course, how did it get here?

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