Air & Space Museum, Washington DC

Last week I had the chance to spend a few hours at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington DC. I’ve been previously but not for a decade. Lots of renovation currently underway so only about half the exhibits are available, but the sensational Space exhibits were all on show.

The Crown Jewels of the exhibit are of course the Freedom 7, Gemini 7, and Apollo 11 capsules

Freedom 7 was the first US manned flight of the Mercury program, lofted by an Army Redstone rocket. On 5 May 61 Alan Shepard made a 15minute sub-orbital flight in this capsule. Interestingly, Alan named the ship, starting the NASA tradition.

I've previously seen this capsule in 2008 displayed at Annapolis Naval Academy (Alan Shepard being a distinguished alumnus) but it has relocated to be part of this historic collection .

Gemini 7 which took astronaughts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell aloft for a 14 day endurance test in December 1965. 

The critical aspect of the mission was to demonstrate the ability to conduct orbital dockings, which it did with Gemoni 6- this was a crucial enabler for the Apollo Missions

The historic Apollo 11 Command Module CM-107 Columbia

Cockpit layout for context, from the Smithsonian Institute

And the flight suit of Astronaut Michael Collins, in my mind a broadly unsung hero of the Mission. in his 2001 biography he wrote " "I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life, I am it. If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two over on the other side of the moon, and one plus God knows what on this side."

Joining these incredible artefacts, and new for me ,was Neil Armstrong’s space suit that walked on the moon in 1969. Having suffered over the years with degradation of its rubber seals and other components, it has been extensively restored over many years and is now on show in a sealed, climate controlled environment right next to the Apollo 11 command capsule.

Nearby, I thought this depiction of the different Moon race rocket systems was very interesting to depict the scale and power increases acheived.

From right to left in historical order: Army Redstone (early sub-orbital Mercury Missions - height 25m/83ft) , Mercury Atlas (Mercury orbital flights - 29m/95ft), Gemini Titan II (Gemini missions - 33m/108ft), Apollo Saturn 1B with 2 stages (Apollo 7, Sky’s 2,3,4, Apollo-Soyuz Test Project - 67m/225ft) and of course the mighty 3 stage Saturn V (Apollo 8-17, Skylab Orbital Workshop), 111m/363ft). The latter is quite something to behold in real life: there are a couple still in existence, including at Kenney Space Centre, Cape Canaveral.

As ever standing next to an R1 engine from a Saturn V rocket is impressive. It would be interesting to see a side by side with a SpaceX Raptor engine. 

This specific Lunar Rover ( technically it was called a "Lunar Roving Vehicle”) was the test and qualification one used by astronauts in training. It was transported in a folded configuration, unpacked on the surface, and left on the surface at the end of the mission. Note that it is controlled with a hand controlled rather than a steering wheel.

I also spent a bit of time looking at the early satellite and probes including Mariner and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). LRO has helped mapped the moon’s surface with high res imagery since 2009.

A most uplifting couple of hours, which also reminded me of seeing the Soviet LK-3 luna lander (the Roscosmos equivalent of the Apollo LEM) and Lunakhod rover, during their temporary London exhibition "Cosmonauts" in 2015.