Smithsonian Voices

From the Smithsonian Museums

A museum display features a statue of a male astronaut standing with his arms outstretched in front of a metal sculpture lit by red and purple lighting. A museum visitor stands in a similar pose in front of the statue.

A Cultural History of Soviet Cosmonauts

A new book explores the legacy of the Soviet Union’s human spaceflight program

A small silver pin shows a smiling Snoopy, a cartoon dog, wearing a spacesuit with a large clear glass helmet, performing his iconic happy beagle dance.

The Story of Snoopy in Space

Underside view of space shuttle in flight with blue sky background.

Space Shuttle Astronauts Tell All

The pitch black night is illuminated by a bright white-hot rocket engine plume, which illuminates clouds of smoke surrounding the launch pad.

How Commercial Landers Are Changing Lunar Exploration

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Barbie: An Astronaut for the Ages

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Ground Control to Major Tom: How David Bowie Soundtracked the Moon Landing

Michael Collins, the Museum's third director, stands before the steel skeleton of the new National Air and Space Museum in July 1974.

Carrying the Fire

Michael Collins' NASA astronaut portrait.

Remembering Michael Collins

This view of Gemini VII from VI-A in December 1965 shows the spacecraft’s orbital configuration.

Gemini VIII’s Near-Disaster

Eating canned food in space. (NASA)

I’ll have the Veal! Preservation with a Can-Do Attitude

Alan Shepard on the lunar surface of the Moon during Apollo 14 mission. Photographed by Edgar D. Mitchell still inside Antares. (NASA)

Lessons from Apollo 14

NASA astronaut and Pilot Victor Glover launched from the International Space Station on the agency’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission. (SpaceX)

Five Things We Learned from Victor Glover

This American flag was left on the International Space Station by the crew of STS-135, the last space shuttle mission, with the intention of it being retrieved by the next crew to launch from American soil.

Launching Astronauts from American Soil: Why is it Important?

Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley walk through Crew Access Arm in SpaceX spacesuits during a dress rehearsal for the first crewed SpaceX launch.

SpaceX Dragon Launch and Entry Suits

Space X's Crew Dragon spacecraft, which is part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

Redefining How NASA Gets into Space

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in the days before the first crewed launch of the Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Launch Complex 39: From Saturn to Shuttle to SpaceX and SLS

Al Worden visits his Apollo 15 spacesuit at the National Air and Space Museum.

Our Friend Al Who Went to the Moon: Remembering Al Worden

NASA's Project Mercury astronauts on April 9, 1959. Known as the Mercury Seven or Original Seven, they are (front row, left to right) Walter M.

Remembering Tom Wolfe and "The Right Stuff"

NASA astronaut Alvin Drew, mission specialist. Credit: NASA Johnson Space Center

Astronaut Alvin Drew on the Final Days of Discovery

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