Museums on The National Mall

Viking Lander, First Spacecraft to Operate on the Surface of Mars. Date of Milestone: July 20, 1976

Viking Lander, another angle

German V-1 Cruise Missile

The V-1 (Vergeltungswaffe Eins, or Vengeance Weapon One), was the world's first operational cruise missile. This name was given to it by the Nazi Propaganda Ministry, but the original Air Ministry designation was Fi 103, after its airframe designer, the Fieseler company. Powered by a simple but noisy pulsejet that earned it the Allied nicknames of "buzz bomb" and "doodle bug," more than 20,000 were launched at British and continental targets, mostly London and Antwerp, from June 1944 to March 1945. It carried a one-ton, high-explosive warhead and had a range of about 240 km (150 miles) but was very inaccurate.  It flew in level flight.

Closer view.  The V-1 had a bang-bang control system analyzed in Germany by my thesis advisor at Standord, Irmgard Flugge-Lotz.  She wrote a small book about it which was the basis of the Ph.D. thesis of my predecessor and was the starting point of mine.  You can see the hinged rudder flap between the engine and airframe at the rear.  This flap was either full right or full left, thus the name bang-bang (against the stops).  As the missile slowed down near a target (e.g., London) the flapping frequency dropped because more time was needed to take aerodynamic action at the slower speed.  Londoners soon learned that when the engine went silent and the flap noise frequency dropped, the bomb was going to hit nearby.

Apollo Lunar Module

Manufacturer: Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation

Country of Origin: United States of America

Dimensions:
Overall: 22 ft. 11 in. tall x 14 ft. 1 in. wide, 8499.9 lb. (698.5 x 429.3cm, 3855.5kg)

Materials:
Aluminum, titanium, aluminized Mylar and aluminized Kapton blankets

The Apollo Lunar Module (LM) was a two-stage vehicle designed by Grumman to ferry two astronauts from lunar orbit to the lunar surface and back. The upper ascent stage consisted of a pressurized crew compartment, equipment areas, and an ascent rocket engine. The lower descent stage had the landing gear and contained the descent rocket engine and lunar surface experiments.

LM 2 was built for a second unmanned Earth-orbit test flight. Because the test flight of LM 1, named Apollo 5, was so successful, a second mission was deemed unnecessary. LM-2 was used for ground testing prior to the first successful Moon-landing mission. In 1970 the ascent stage of LM-2 spent several months on display at the "Expo '70" in Osaka, Japan. When it returned to the United States, it was reunited with its descent stage, modified to appear like the Apollo 11 Lunar Module "Eagle," and transferred to the Smithsonian for display.

Hubble Test Telescope

Manufacturer: Lockheed Martin Missile and Space Corporation

Country of Origin: United States of America

Dimensions:
Overall: 14 ft. wide x 42 ft. 4 in. tall (426.7 x 1290.3cm)

Materials:
Mixed metals, aluminized Mylar

Prior to undertaking construction of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) the Lockheed Missile and Space Company built a full-scale mockup in 1975 for conducting various feasibility studies. Initially a low-fidelity metal cylinder for testing handling procedures for the proposed spacecraft, the test vehicle evolved continuously as Lockheed proceeded through its feasibility studies and was awarded the contract to build the actual spacecraft. The test vehicle eventually served as a frame on which the cables and wiring harnesses for the actual spacecraft were fabricated. It was also used for simulations in developing maintenance and repair activities in orbit. Dynamic studies on the test vehicle including vibration studies and thermal studies led to its being designated the Hubble Space Telescope Structural Dynamic Test Vehicle (SDTV).

The artifact was stored outdoors at Lockheed in Sunnyvale Ca., until it was donated to NASM in June 1987 and shipped to the Garber facility. There it was refurbished and restored to its 1976 configuration. It went on display in the Space Hall in March 1989. In 1996 the SDTV was removed from exhibit in order to upgrade the object to simulate the actual HST as it was being deployed from the Shuttle. This major upgrade, generously supported and executed by Lockheed, HST subcontractors, the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and NASM staff and volunteers, involved fabricating the equipment section for the Optical Telescope Assembly, the aperture door, high gain antennae, solar arrays, aft shroud handrails, and numerous other details. A major addition was realistic multi-layer (non-flight) thermal blanketing and taping, interface hardware, wave guides, and the umbilical. NASA also provided a large equipment cradle to allow the upgraded object to be displayed from the floor at a dramatic angle. The completed artifact was reinstalled in Space Hall in early 1997.

Joint U.S. (left) Soviet (right) space lab

Soviet lab  in blue

Another view of Soviet space lab

Pioneering aircraft

This was Mary's brother Harry's ship during WW II

Closer crop