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| Exhibitions | |
 Featured. Representing the Space Race gallery in our banner this month is the American half of a recreation of the Apollo-Soyuz space rendezvous. The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was the first American-Soviet space flight, docking the last American Apollo spacecraft with the then-Soviet Soyuz spacecraft. It resulted in the first cross-cultural "handshake in space." The gallery also includes the back-up Skylab Orbital Workshop, a full-scale mockup of the Hubble Space Telescope, and the World War II, German-built V-2 rocket.
Opening April 12. A new permanent exhibition, Time and Navigation: The Untold Story of Getting from Here to There, opens to the public at 10:00 am April 12. The exhibition will explore how revolutions in timekeeping over three centuries have influenced how we find our way. Among the artifacts in the gallery will be Stanley, autonomous car that navigates using GPS; Wiley Post's Lockheed Vega Winnie Mae; a 1790 Ramsden sextant; the actual clock used by Charles Lindbergh to navigate during his transatlantic flight; and the flight spare of Mariner 10, the first spacecraft to visit Mercury and the first to use the gravitational pull of one planet (Venus) to reach another (Mercury).
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| Feature Story from Air & Space Magazine |  Not the First? Read this blog post by editor Linda Shiner about recent claims that the Wright brothers were not first in flight. |
| This Month in Aviation and Space History |  April 4 marks 70 years since the airship USS Akron (ZRS-4) crashed during a severe storm off the coast of New Jersey, killing 73. Only three passengers survived. At the Udvar-Hazy Center, you can see an airplane related to the USS Akron, the Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk, pictured at left. The plane was deployed by the Akron and Macon, making these airships into flying aircraft carriers. The Sparrowhawk could be released and recovered in flight. |
| Test your Knowledge | |
 What rocket launched the United States' first artificial satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit in 1958, and in 1961 launched the first American into space, Alan Shepard? A U.S. Army version of this rocket is on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center. Answer
NASA photo |
| New in the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies |  New maps of the subsurface of Mars show for the first time buried channels below the surface of the Red Planet. The findings are reported by a team led by Smithsonian scientist Gareth A. Morgan, in a paper titled "3D Reconstruction of the Source and Scale of Buried Young Flood Channels on Mars." The paper was published in the March 7 issue of the journal Science. Bruce Campbell, another Museum scientist, is one of the paper's co-authors. Learn more in this Smithsonian magazine blog post. Image credit: NASA/MOLA Team/Smithsonian |
| Great Read |  Alaska and the Airplane, A Century of Flight, by Museum curator Jeremy Kinney and Anchorage Museum curator Julie Decker, photographs by Eric F. Long. Releases April 16. This book accompanies the Anchorage Museum's exhibition, Arctic Flight: A Century of Alaska Aviation, which was created in collaboration with the National Air and Space Museum (see "In Your Neighborhood" below in the Photo Gallery). It looks at Alaskan aviation using historical images and photos of flight artifacts from the exhibition -- objects that convey stories of triumph, tragedy, and survival. |
| Sole Survivors and One-of-a-Kinds | |
 Fokker T-2 (IV). This sole surviving aircraft was the first to make a non-stop flight across the North American continent. The 1923 flight was made under the auspices of the U.S. Army Air Service and took 26 hours, 50 minutes. This airplane is on display in the Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight Gallery in the Museum in Washington, DC.
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| New on the AirSpace Blog | |
 Civil War Planes, by aeronautics senior curator Tom Crouch
Two Years Ago Today, by astronomy educator Geneviève de Messières
Vulcan? But That's Not Logical, by space history curator Margaret Weitekamp and senior curator David DeVorkin
Meet the Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical Engineering Cadettes, by aeronautics curator Dorothy Cochrane
Pluto's Secret: Writing the Museum's First Children's Book, by space history curator Margaret Weitekamp
An Artistic Search for Pluto, by manager of early childhood education Diane Kidd
Preserving and Displaying the "Bat-Wing" Ship, by objects conservator Lauren Horelick in the Collections Department
Women in Space, by space history curator Margaret Weitekamp
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 In Your Neighborhood. A variety of artifacts from the National Air and Space Museum's collection are on view in a new exhibition at the Anchorage Museum in Alaska. Arctic Flight: A Century of Alaska Aviation reflects on the crucial role aviation has played in the state in the last 100 years. One of the objects on loan, in the photo at left, is the "Mechanical Mike" Automatic Pilot used by Wiley Post on his 1933 solo around-the-world flight. Flying alone meant he would have to fly and navigate at the same time. He used a new innovation from the Sperry Gyroscope Company, an automatic pilot that could fly his Lockheed Vega Winnie Mae straight and level for long periods of time by itself. Post used the device with navigational instruments to fly through continuous heavy clouds and fog during the long flight from Siberia to Fairbanks. He helped pioneer the type of all-weather flying needed in Alaska.
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 The North American F-100D Super Sabre was recently moved into the Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar at the Udvar-Hazy Center. It can be seen in the foreground of this photo, with the Sikorsky JRS-1 in the background. You can see both aircraft from the mezzanine overlook. |
 Clementine Lunar Probe. Clementine, launched in 1994, was designed to complete a two-month mapping mission in orbit around the Moon and then fly past an asteroid. Although its attempt at flying past an asteroid failed, Clementine provided answers to many of the questions about the Moon that remained from the Apollo era of lunar exploration. This engineering model is on display in the Lunar Exploration Vehicles exhibit in the Museum in Washington, DC. |
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For more photos, search through the online collections imagery database. |
| Shop the SmithsonianStore.com |  Flight Jacket. Don't miss this popular item now on sale! Save $70. Look cool and stay warm wearing this authentically-styled flight jacket fully equipped with front-zipper closure and storm flap, signature utility/pencil pocket on sleeve, lined cargo pockets with Velcro® closures, and quilted lining, 100% Nylon.
Show off your new jacket at the National Air and Space Society's Flight Jacket Night this fall. Details on the date and speaker will be available this summer.
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National Air and Space Society Event
New Time and Navigation Exhibition Members-Only Preview
Thursday, April 11, 8:30 am to 10:00 am
At the Museum in Washington, DC
Become a member to enjoy this event and receive other benefits. Your membership helps restore, preserve, and celebrate aviation and space exploration. |
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New Exhibition Opening
Time and Navigation: The Untold Story of Getting from Here to There
Friday, April 12, 10:00 am
At the Museum in Washington, DC |
Lecture
The Monster at the Heart of the Milky Way
Featuring Andrea M. Ghez, Professor of Astronomy, Department of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA
Friday, April 12, 7:30 pm
At the Udvar-Hazy Center
This lecture is part of the John Bahcall Lecture Series, which is organized by the Space Telescope Science Institute. |
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Exploring Space Lecture
The Voyager Journey to the Edge of Interstellar Space
Featuring Edward C. Stone, professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology and chief scientist of the Voyager Mission
Tuesday, April 16, 8:00 pm
At the Museum in Washington, DC
This program is made possible by the generous support of NASA and Aerojet. |
Telescopic Observing
Stargazing at the Public Observatory
Tuesday, April 16, 8:30 to 10:00 pm
At the Museum in Washington, DC |
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Family Day
Time and Navigation
Saturday, April 20, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm
At the Museum in Washington, DC
This event is made possible by the generous support of these sponsors. |
Panel Discussion Moderated by CIA Historian David Waltrop
CIA's Underwater Space Mission Revealed: Recovering a Secret Spy Satellite Capsule from 16,400 Feet Below the Pacific Ocean
Friday, April 26, 7:00 pm
At the Udvar-Hazy Center |
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Recurring Activities
Super Science Saturdays
At the Udvar-Hazy Center
Every second Saturday. This month: April 13; Topic: How Things Fly
This series is made possible by the generous support of FBR.
Telescopic Observing
Saturday Star Parties at Sky Meadows State Park
Variable schedule. This month: Saturday, April 13, 7:00 to 10:00 pm
At Sky Meadows State Park near Paris, Virginia
"Flights of Fancy" Stories for Children
Both locations
Variable schedule
This event is made possible by the generous support of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.
Ask an Expert Lectures
Both locations
Wednesday, Noon, at the Museum in Washington, DC
Second and fourth Thursdays, 12:30, at the Udvar-Hazy Center
Author Book Signings
Both locations
Variable schedule
Public Observatory
At the Museum in Washington, DC
Wednesdays through Sundays from Noon to 3:00 pm, weather permitting; see special nighttime viewings under "Events and Activities" above.
Imax Movies
Both locations
Variable titles, schedules, and prices
Albert Einstein Planetarium
At the Museum in Washington, DC
Variable titles and schedules; some shows are free
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| One Museum, Two Locations |
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 Museum in Washington, D.C.
6th & Independence, S.W.
Washington, DC
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 Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
14390 Air and Space Museum Pkwy.
Chantilly, Virginia
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Regular hours: every day from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. except December 25.
See the online schedule for extended spring/summer hours. Admission is free. Udvar-Hazy Center parking: $15, free after 4:00 p.m. For information call (202) 633-1000.
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