NASM,
Washington DCNASM,
Washington DCIf you can only see one, see this one: The National Air and Space Museum (NASM), part of the Smithsonian Institution.
Walking into the grand hall (image: left) is
truly entering aerospace heaven. It is a feeling you must
experience 
at least once - rather like a pilgrimage. I took
these in 1988, and the exhibits have changed over the years, but
the inspiration is boundless. There is a greater array of pure
preserved manned spaceflight here than anywhere! The main
galleries house Apollo 11 Command Module "Columbia,"
and two of the last surviving full, flight qualified Apollo
spacecraft. Other notable flown spacecraft are Gemini IV, which
hosted the first U.S. spacewalk; and Mercury spacecraft number
13, which flew mission Mercury Atlas 6 (MA-6), better known as
John Glenn's "Friendship 7" (image: right).
One of the lesser-known, but extremely very
important vehicles on display is the X-15, a rocket-powered
airplane that some consider one of America's first real
spacecraft. This joint NASA-Air Force experimental flight program
flew three different aircraft in 199 missions from 1959-1968. The
machine, simply called X-15 #1 (tail number 56-6670), flew both
NASA and Air Force pilots at speeds over Mach 6, to altitudes of
over 50, then over 60 miles (100 km). Notably, it is the only one
of the original three aircraft flown by all 12 test pilots, and
flew the first and last missions in the program. This black
rocket made 81 free fall drops, and 142 powered flights from its
B-52 mothership. Some folks call the X-15 the father of the Space
Shuttle program, as the hypersonic speeds, high temperate return
from altitude, and pressure-suit needs all contributed to
developing this next big winged rocket program.
This is a real Moonship that never made it into space (image: below left and center): Apollo Command Service Module (CSM) number 105, with the unique Docking Module (DM) atop its nose probe, is part of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP, sometimes identified as Apollo 18) display. The DM provided the crucial mechanical and environmental adapter that enabled this first joint U.S./Russian (Soviet) effort in July 1975. The Russians used different gas mixes and pressures in the Soyuz atmosphere, so the crews always had to use this adapter before moving between spacecraft. Notably, Deke Slayton was the only Apollo crewman to carry the title Docking Module Pilot (DMP) - check out Deke's own museum. This same basic joint docking system is still used for Shuttle missions to the International Space Station, and formerly to the Mir space station.
This real Moonship never touched the surface of
the Moon (left), but was meant to do just that mission. Lunar
Module (LM) number 2 recreates the Apollo 11 landing with two
type pressure-suited figures. This spacecraft was originally
built for a second unmanned test flight after the first LM flew
on Apollo 5. It must have been a pretty solid craft to only need
one test flight, because LM 3 flew with a crew on Apollo 9.
People are often struck by how ungainly and fragile-looking a
spacecraft the LM appears. Many people think it looks less like a
spaceship than any other vehicle in the museum, but oddly it was
the first machine designed to work only in space - never in
Earth's atmosphere. Regardless of how you view this remarkable
machine, it's a wonderful close-up view of the reall thing: an
historic "Lunar Schooner." Not only is it a major
landmark and centerpiece, it's right outside the museum's
cafeteria. Oddly enough, there's more to say about LM's and food in
other museums.
"Tally-Ho, the Skylab!"
This quote came from Skylab 1 Commander Charles
"Pete" Conrad (also the third man on the Moon), as he
flew his crew toward the first U.S. space station in May 1973.
The program was originally called Apollo Applications, or:
"What do we do with out Moon program leftovers?" The
Orbital Work Shop (OWS) - the living/working module - of the
actual backup Skylab, was built from Saturn V booster stage S-IVB
number 515. This rocket stage was originally meant to carry a
later Apollo mission to the Moon, but being part of a space
station program was not a bad supporting role. I think we're
fortunate to have any space station available for a walk-through
tour. This spacecraft would have flown a second Skylab
"B" mission around the Earth in the late 1970s - and
more ambitious never-realized schemes would have even made it
"Moonlab" in Lunar orbit! Elsewhere in the exhibit, two
intrepid spacewalkers in their A7B model extravehicular
spacesuits attend the Airlock Module and Apollo Telescope Mount
(ATM). Compare the real unflown second Skylab to the very realistic trainer version in Houston. When I took this image in the late 1980s, Skylab
sat next to a World War II V-2 missile (image: right).
The view out the window, past a Ranger lunar probe
hanging in the sunlight, looks onto 
Washington DC's National Mall. This is somewhat
appropriate, as the U.S. Capitol and the government it represents
paid for the trips to the Moon. As part of the Smithsonian
Institution, this museum represents just a part of the great
learning and marvelous artifacts around this major U.S. city.
But, hey, I'm a space geek, so what I really liked were all the
pictures of spacemen and spaceships drawn by local school
children (image: right) !
