 | |
 Ad Astra sculpture at the museum entrance on the National Mall | |
  Location within Washington, D.C.  National Air and Space Museum (the United States) | |
Former name | National Air Museum |
|---|---|
| Established | 1946 (as the National Air Museum) |
| Location | Washington, D.C. |
| Coordinates | 38°53′18″N 77°01′12″W / 38.88833°N 77.02000°W |
| Type | Aviation museum |
| Visitors | 3.1 million visitors (2023)[1] |
| Director | Chris Browne |
| Curator | Peter Jakab |
| Public transit access |  Washington Metro      at L'Enfant Plaza |
| Website | https://airandspace.si.edu |
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 2023, the museum welcomed 3.1 million visitors, making it the fourth-most visited museum in the United States and eleventh-most in the world.
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 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 760,000-square-foot (71,000 m2) 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 multi-year, $360M renovation that started in 2018, during which some of its spaces and galleries are closed. As of August 2024, 13 of the museum's 23 galleries are open to the public, with 10 of them still closed for renovation. The remaining 10 galleries of the museum are expected to reopen some time in 2026. [2]
- ^ List of most-visited museums in the United States, March 2024
- ^ Klein, Kristine (October 11, 2022). "National Air and Space Museum to reopen eight renovated galleries". The Architect's Newspaper. Archived from the original on January 13, 2023. Retrieved January 13, 2023.