Smithsonian Voices

From the Smithsonian Museums

Barbie: An Astronaut for the Ages

There is perhaps no résumé in existence quite as long as Barbie’s. One of her oldest and arguably most iconic careers is as an astronaut. Let's take a look through some of her most iconic space looks, spanning 1965 to today.

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Preserving Launch Infrastructure

Michael Collins, the Museum's third director, stands before the steel skeleton of the new National Air and Space Museum in July 1974.

Carrying the Fire

Eating canned food in space. (NASA)

I’ll have the Veal! Preservation with a Can-Do Attitude

Artist’s conception of the Perseverance rover sampling rocks on the floor of Jezero crater. The rover also carries the Ingenuity helicopter (not shown) that can fly in advance of the rover and scout out high priority rocks and outcrops for the rover to visit. (NASA)

Is There Life on Mars?

Alan Shepard on the lunar surface of the Moon during Apollo 14 mission. Photographed by Edgar D. Mitchell still inside Antares. (NASA)

Lessons from Apollo 14

Lt. Ward Hitt, Jr., sitting in the cockpit of his North American F-86A Sabre fighter, gives his crew chief the OK hand sign, South Korea.

70 Years Ago: F-86s and MiGs over Korea

Gen. Glen VanHerck, Commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command talks on the phone as part of a video celebrating the NORAD Santa Tracker's 65th year.

Why NORAD Tracks Santa Claus

Chuck Yeager with Bell X-1. (NASM)

Remembering Chuck Yeager, a Pilot with the Right Stuff

Three-quarter left front view of Cessna BW-5 (r/n C6623, National Air Races race no. 98) on the ground, possibly at Roosevelt Field, Long Island, New York, circa September 1928. Posed standing beside nose of aircraft are pilot Francis D.

Francis D. Bowhan: Osage Pilot

Informal classroom portrait of teacher Herbert Stephen Desind (1945-1992), wearing a reproduction Apollo-era spacesuit, holding an American flag; circa 1980s.  Desind was a space flight aficionado, and his collection of photographs of aircraft and spacecraft was donated to the National Air and Space Museum in 1997. This image is part of the Herbert Stephen Desind Collection.

Herbert Desind: A Passion for Spaceflight