National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC

We visited the National Air and Space Museum, the most popular of the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D. C. We had to wait in line to get in (along with signing up for digital, timed tickets). The museum is a classic for a reason--a lot of amazing and dramatic stories are told here.

Not an amazing and dramatic exterior, though

The lobby is better

One famous item on display is the Spirit of St. Louis, the airplane that Charles Lindberg used for the first solo transatlantic flight in 1927 (almost a century ago).

Spirt of St. Louis

I was surprise to see, almost across the gallery from the Spirit of St. Louis, an x-wing fighter with an R2 unit on display. 

Drawing attention to the gift shop, no doubt

We visited a few of the permanent exhibits. First was Exploring the Planets, all about our solar system with some stuff about exoplanets (those that orbit other stars in our galaxy).

Exoplanet info

Wonder about planets has been a part of human culture even to prehistoric times. This dual display also shows an ancient gear that was discovered, so we have been fascinated by technology for millennia too!

Historical astronomy and technology

The kids loved the interactive exhibits that let you design solar systems or explore the make-up of various planets.

Building a better world

Rovers we sent to Mars are on display.

Well, mock-ups, not the actual rovers which have not come back

Destination Moon is an exhibit about lunar exploration, starting with a lot of the less-the-accurate speculations about the moon's makeup and inhabitants from over a hundred years ago. Most of the exhibit chronicles the Cold War race to the moon.

Explaining the phases of the moon

Lunar propaganda!

The Soviets were the first to launch an artificial satellite and to send a living creature (a dog) into orbit. The U. S. sent a chimp up in the capsule below. The compartment includes some levers and switches for the chimpanzee to manipulate while in space. The capsule recorded reactions and times to see what sort of effect zero-gravity and confined space would have.

Primate capsule

The Soviets also put the first man in orbit, Yuri Gagarin, though the U. S. Mercury program was not too far behind.

Mercury vs. Vostok space ships

Alan Shepherd rode the Freedom 7 as the first American astronaut in space.

Freedom 7

One corner showed a lot of information about the Space Race, a dramatic component of the conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Racing to explore

Another display shows various items made for the space program, mostly produced domestically.

Was the big knife to deal with aliens?

The Gemini program sent up multiple astronauts at a time, part of building up skills for an eventual moon landing.

Gemini VII, room for two

The high point was the Apollo program which intended to land men on the Moon.

Apollo lunar suit

Items from Apollo 13

The command module from the Apollo 11 trip is on display. Three astronauts lived and worked in there as they executed the mission that put people on the Moon's surface for the first time.

Command Module Columbia

The underside of the module

Random upside-down plane that we didn't read the display about--make up your own story!

The final gallery we went too was Pioneers of Flight, all about the Wright Brothers' lives and accomplishments.

Statues of Wilbur and Orville Wright

The brothers were in business building and selling bicycles but their hobby was working on powered flight. They spent their spare time working on a machine that would let men fly in a heavier-than-air craft. They did a lot of experimentation and working out of details, spending years before they achieved their success.

One of four extant Wright bicycles

The Wright Flyer from Kittyhawk, North Carolina

The museum has plenty of other galleries that we did not see and will be opening new galleries in 2026, so a large portion of the museum was under wraps for the future. I am sure we will go back.

Book Review: Failure is Not an Option by Gene Kranz

Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz

Gene Kranz was a NASA flight director in the early days of the manned space missions. He coordinated the efforts of the designers, engineers, and astronauts before, during, and after launches. The most dramatic missions he led were Apollo 11 (the landing on the moon) and Apollo 13 (the failed mission shown in the movie of the same name (Ed Harris played Kranz)). A lot of the other missions are also exciting. Kranz's narrative goes to the end of the Apollo program in the early 1970s, with a little bit of discussion of the shuttle program. The book was written in 2000, quite a few years after he retired and after the Harris film (which was released in 1995).

Kranz has a lot of insights into the workings of NASA, especially the relationships between Mission Control and the astronauts. He touches on the political side of the job very rarely--he did not deal with the Federal bureaucracy. He did deal with the press, having briefings often during flights. The press in the 1960s was highly sympathetic to the space program, being more cooperative and less muckraking than in later years. The main focus of the book is on the men and the tricky situations that arose. I enjoyed the backroom stories but the overall narrative is a little flat. Kranz does not have a consistent focus and is not a natural storyteller. The book is more of a chronicle of what happened than the story of an era. The events are so dramatic and impactful that his lack of storytelling and finesse is easy to overlook.

Mildly recommended.

Science at the Library

Many of the recent storytimes at the library have been science-based. We love science, so that made us happy.

The summer reading program is "A Universe of Stories," and it has a very scientific/science fictional bent. As part of the program kick-off, the library has been showing off moon rocks borrowed from NASA. The rocks were disappointingly small and not for touching--they were imbedded in acrylic! They were still fun to look at.

Hard to get a good shot with everyone crowding in

They also had a moon globe that shows all the landing spots of the Apollo missions. I want one!

Moon globe

I didn't know they landed practically on the equator!

Another program was "Sink or Swim?" After some stories and songs, we got to the science experiments.

The first experiment we tried was floating an egg. In regular water, an egg does not have enough buoyancy to float. But if the water is salty enough, it will. We never got the egg more than a fraction of a millimeter off the bottom of the glass. We had fun trying.

Float an egg?

Our next experiment was with a ball of clay. At first, the ball-shaped lump sank straight to the bottom.

The light reflection blocks the ball a bit

We took the clay back out and reshaped it into a wide boat. With the added displacement of water, the clay was able to float.

Our boat

The boat was buoyant enough to carry paperclips!

Trying to weigh it down

The final station had a set of objects with a checklist. We had to guess whether things like coins, keys, corks, Legos, pencils, and other items would float. After making our predictions, my son put the various objects into the water. We didn't guess right about the Lego (we were thinking more about its brickness than its plasticity) and we made a middle vote on the plastic spoon. Both items floated.

Testing the cork

We hope for more science over the summer (even if it isn't at the library)!

Movie Review: The Dish (2000)

The Dish (2000) co-written and directed by Rob Sitch

On July 20, 1969, the whole world watched as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon.  It took a huge team of scientists and technicians to get them there. Another huge team got the video signal from the Moon's surface into everyone's homes. This movie is the story of the satellite dish that received that signal. The dish is (yes, it's still running) in Parkes, Australia, a small sheep-farming town. A local crew of three men have been running the dish but recently a fourth has been added to the crew, an American from NASA. The small tension between the men gets a little bigger as the Australian prime minister and the U.S. Ambassador come to visit Parkes during the Apollo XI mission. The mayor is excited and the town celebrates its role in the greatest scientific accomplishment of the twentieth century. They celebrate a bit too much, causing a power outage that puts the dish off-line. Can the team work together to get the lunar signal back in time for the historic event?

The movie doesn't focus so much on the scientific problems as on the quirky characters involved around those problems. Their solutions don't involve so much scientific deduction and mathematical calculation (though those are indeed part) as they do trust and teamwork. The men learn to respect each other and contribute their best. The townsfolk at first seem to be in the movie only to provide comic locals, but they do show how everyone from all walks of life were drawn in by the lunar landing. They are a microcosm of the whole planet's expectations and reactions to the mission. The movie has a lot of humor and heart and clearly depicts the optimism and excitement of the time.

Highly recommended.

This movie is discussed on A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast 207--check out their discussion!