Press Releases

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum announces the 2020 “Exploring Space Lecture Series.” This year’s four-part series will look at the universe through a variety of lenses. Each of the lectures will take place at 8 p.m. in the museum’s Lockheed Martin IMAX Theater and all are free to the public. Lectures will be followed by night sky observing in the museum’s Phoebe Waterman Haas Public Observatory, weather permitting.

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum will expand its popular “S.H.E. Can” STEM summer camp to Bentonville, Arkansas, beginning in July 2020. Building on the success of the camp over the past two summers at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, the museum will pilot the two-week summer camp in northwest Arkansas over the next three years.

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum will host its annual “Air & Scare” family day from noon to 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26, at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. Visitors will enjoy safe, indoor trick-or-treating and spooky activities for all ages at this free event.

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum’s renovation of the building on the National Mall continues with artifact moves and significant changes to the “Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall.” The North American X-15 will be the first major artifact to be lowered and removed from the museum’s main hall. Visitors will continue to see changes as other artifacts shift and move over the next few months.

The National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center will host the British Royal Air Force’s Red Arrows, one of the world’s premier aerobatic display teams, Tuesday, Aug. 27. As part of their North American tour, three Red Arrows Hawk T1s will fly past the museum and will then be on display for visitors to see on the ramp outside the museum. The museum also will host activities inside, including panel discussions, curator talks and other educational activities.

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum will present an once-in-a-lifetime celebration of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 this July in partnership with the U.S. Department of the Interior and 59 Productions. For three nights, July 16, 17 and 18—a full-sized, 363-foot Saturn V rocket will be projected onto the east face of the Washington Monument from 9:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. On Friday, July 19, and Saturday, July 20, a special 17-minute show, “Apollo 50: Go for the Moon” will combine full-motion projection-mapping artwork on the monument and archival footage to recreate the launch of Apollo 11 and tell the story of the first moon landing.

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum continues its major renovation of the building on the National Mall with the next phase of gallery closures July 8. The two additional exhibitions to close will be “Early Flight” and “Exploring the Planets.” The east wing of the museum, the Planetarium and IMAX theater will remain open. Many of the museum’s icons, including the “Spirit of St. Louis,” the 1903 Wright Flyer, Bell X-1, Skylab and the Apollo Lunar Module, will remain on display. The first set of new galleries is scheduled to reopen in 2022.