US — Ars Technica

"At Home in Space" opens, caps Air and Space Museum renovation

SpaceNovember 3, 20261 min read

The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum has finished a seven-year, nearly $1 billion renovation of its main building in Washington, DC. A new gallery called "At Home in Space" opened on October 30 to show how people learned to live in space.

A new gallery opens

The museum reopened its flagship building in Washington, DC, after a long renovation. On October 30, it opened "At Home in Space," the last spaceflight exhibition to open in the renovated building. The gallery tells the story of spending long periods in space. Curator Jennifer Levasseur led a virtual tour and explained the gallery's main idea.

Key facts

The renovation took seven years.
It cost nearly $1 billion.
The space gallery has 25-plus years of long-duration spaceflight experience behind it.
The gallery follows the earlier "Moving Beyond Earth" exhibition on a similar theme.

How the story is told

Levasseur said the gallery has three parts. The first part is the early history, including the space shuttle. The middle part is the International Space Station (ISS), where people have lived in space. The last part looks at the next steps. The museum has also opened other galleries in recent years. These cover the first trips to the Moon, robot probes that have visited every planet, everyday technology from space, and future spaceflight plans.

Why it matters

The exhibit shows how people went from visiting space for short trips to living there for long periods. This history helps explain how future bases on the Moon and Mars might work.

What to watch

How visitors respond to the new gallery.
Whether the museum adds more exhibits about future space travel.
How the story of the ISS and next steps continues in later exhibits.

Glossary

Smithsonian: A group of museums and research centers in the United States, funded partly by the government.
National Air and Space Museum: A museum in Washington, DC, that shows the history of flight and space exploration.
International Space Station (ISS): A large lab in orbit around Earth where astronauts live and do research.
space shuttle: A reusable spacecraft that flew astronauts to orbit and back from 1981 to 2011.
long-duration spaceflight: Space missions that last a long time, such as months spent living in orbit.

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