Page Updated: February 12, 2024
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Columbia Command Module Heat Shield - Washington D.C.
Located on the National Mall in Washington D.C., the National Air and Space Museum is so large it has second installment as the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA. Together under the Smithsonian Institute, these museums display thousands of artifacts related to the history and science of aviation and space exploration.
Stoked to visit the National Air and Space Museum, we showed our free but required timed-entry passes, grabbed a map, and quickly were crushed to find half of the museum was closed for renovations. We have to laugh at our luck, otherwise it’d be so disappointing. C'est La Vie!
On the flip side, we were lucky we got to see the museum at all. The entire museum closed for large scale renovations and had just partially reopened September 2022 with only eight exhibits.
Can you say “busy?” Since its dedication in 1976, the National Air and Space Museum has been one of the most popular museums in the world. It was by far the busiest - and noisiest - we visited while in D.C. Headphones helped block out the chaos.
The available exhibits included early flight, commercial aviation, the evolution of satellites, and a partial history of American space exploration. Destination Moon had Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs represented with Freedom 7, Gemini VII, and the Columbia Command Module, respectively. And who doesn’t want to see a moon rock?
Even though there were only eight exhibits on display the day of our visit to the National Air and Space Museum and we didn’t get to see the Space Shuttle Discovery, we still spent several hours roaming what we could.
We would have spent longer in several exhibits, but 1) lunch was subpar at the Mars Café which had us grumpy, and 2) we were over trying to navigate the crowd. Frustration won after our light snack break and people dodging through the Wright Brother exhibit. We made quick work of the remaining ground floor galleries before bailing.
We were just as happy to leave as we were to arrive.
scenes from National Air and Space Museum
-b&b
National Gallery of Art
National Museum of the American Indian
