National Air and Space Museum

''[[Ad Astra (Lippold sculpture)|Ad Astra]]'' sculpture at the museum entrance on the National Mall The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States dedicated to human flight and space exploration.

Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, its main building opened on the National Mall near L'Enfant Plaza in 1976. In 2018, the museum saw about 6.2 million visitors, making it the fifth-most-visited museum in the world, and the second-most-visited museum in the United States. In 2020, due to long closures and a drop in foreign tourism caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, museum attendance dropped to 267,000.

The museum is a center for research into the history and science of aviation and spaceflight, as well as planetary science and terrestrial geology and geophysics. Almost all of its spacecraft and aircraft on display are original primary or backup craft (rather than facsimiles). Its collection includes the Apollo 11 Command Module ''Columbia'', the ''Friendship 7'' capsule which was flown by John Glenn, Charles Lindbergh's ''Spirit of St. Louis'', the Bell X-1 which broke the sound barrier, the model of the starship ''Enterprise'' used in the science fiction television show ''Star Trek: The Original Series'', and the Wright brothers ''Wright Flyer'' airplane near the entrance.

The museum operates a annex, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, at Dulles International Airport. It includes the Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar, which houses the museum's restoration and archival activities. Other preservation and restoration efforts take place at the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Suitland, Maryland.

The museum's main building on the National Mall is undergoing a seven-year, $360M renovation that started in 2018, during which some of its spaces and galleries are closed. Provided by Wikipedia
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Published 1995
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Author: Hardesty, Von, 1939-
Published 1983
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Published 2013
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