National Air and Space Museum, Aviation and space museum on the National Mall, Washington, D.C., United States
The National Air and Space Museum is an aviation and space museum on the National Mall in Washington D.C. that displays aircraft, spacecraft, and rockets. The collection spans two locations and features hundreds of original objects from the history of flight.
Congress created the National Air Museum on August 12, 1946, and President Harry S. Truman signed the act. The museum was renamed the National Air and Space Museum during the 1950s–60s space race, and its Mall building opened on July 1, 1976, under director Michael Collins, who had flown on Apollo 11.
The place houses pieces from hundreds of years of aviation history, showing the shift from the first powered flights to space travel. Visitors see capsules that carried humans to the moon and machines that lifted off more than a century ago.
The Mall building runs along Jefferson Drive between 4th and 7th Streets SW, with Independence Avenue at its rear. A $360-million renovation begun in 2018 left 13 of 23 galleries open as of August 2024, the rest due by 2026, so some halls may be closed. Aircraft such as the Wright Flyer hang near the entrance.
A second location near Dulles Airport displays larger machines in wide hangars, including a Space Shuttle and a supersonic airliner. The hangar hall there offers more room for bulky objects that do not fit on the National Mall.
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