Smithsonian Completes $1 Billion Renovation of Air and Space Museum
The final gallery, At Home in Space, explores long-duration human spaceflight and future exploration.
1Museum Renovation Milestone
The Smithsonian has finalized a seven-year, $1 billion renovation of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. This extensive project involved refacing exterior cladding and replacing mechanical systems. The final phase concluded on October 30 with the opening of the At Home in Space exhibition, completing the museum's full public reopening.
2Focus on Orbital Living
Curator Jennifer Levasseur describes the new gallery as a narrative of long-duration spaceflight. The exhibit bridges the gap between early space shuttle missions and the International Space Station, while looking toward future lunar and Martian bases. It highlights the transition from simply visiting space to establishing a permanent human presence in orbit.
3Rare Artifacts on Display
The gallery features unique items, including a space shuttle main engine and the Robonaut 1A prototype. Notably, it displays a fully flown extravehicular mobility unit spacesuit, which is rarely seen by the public. Unlike Apollo-era suits, the EMU design allows for component swapping, enabling reuse across different astronauts on the space station.
4Honoring Space Tragedies
The exhibition includes recovered components from the Challenger and Columbia disasters to honor the lost crews. Artifacts include a Challenger elevon hinge and a Columbia reinforced carbon-carbon wing panel. This marks only the second public display of such debris, following a 2015 exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.
5Immersive Station Experience
Visitors can walk through a full-scale mock-up of the Destiny module, the US national laboratory on the ISS. The display includes specialized equipment like microgravity coffee cups and the first 3D printer used in space. Designers added specific labels to emphasize the three-dimensional nature of living and working in orbital environments.
6Scientific and Sensory Engagement
The exhibit incorporates interactive elements, such as scent oils that allow guests to experience what space and the ISS smell like. It also showcases biotech tools like the miniPCR toolkit and the MinION device used for DNA sequencing. These artifacts demonstrate the practical, daily scientific operations conducted by astronauts in orbit.
7Future Exploration Goals
The gallery concludes by looking toward the Artemis program. A scale model of the Orion spacecraft currently occupies the space reserved for the actual Artemis I capsule, which is expected to arrive later this year. Additionally, the display includes a piece of Wright Flyer fabric that traveled to the Moon with Artemis II.
8Strategic Museum Completion
With the opening of the final galleries, the museum has achieved its most extensive project to date. While admission remains free, the institution continues to require timed-entry passes for all visitors. This renovation ensures the preservation of world-class aerospace collections while modernizing the visitor experience for the next generation of space enthusiasts.