In honor of the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, we're looking back on our 2020 episode about the Broadway musical Come From Away.

If you’re a Broadway fan, you’ve likely heard about Come From Away—the Tony-award-winning smash-hit musical with a story firmly rooted in generations of aviation history. On September 11, 2001, 38 commercial airliners were diverted out of US air space to a small town with a big airport called Gander, Newfoundland. Come From Away puts a spotlight on Beverley Bass, American Airlines’ first woman Captain who commanded one of the aircraft. Our hosts sit down with Beverley to hear the story of her incredible career firsthand, and with Come from Away’s writers, Irene Sankoff and David Hein, to learn how they were inspired to write an entire musical about the biggest aviation hub you’ve likely never heard of. Early aviation history, pioneering pilots, and one community’s story of unity on a day of infamy—there’s a lot going on in this episode (but still no intermission).

Thanks to our guests in this episode:

• Beverley Bass
• Irene Sankoff
• David Hein

Find the transcript for this episode and more information at https://airandspace.si.edu/airspace-podcast/Me-and-the-Sky-Revisited.

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AirSpace is created by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.

The National Air and Space Museum's newly renovated building in Washington D.C. includes a beautiful new art gallery to showcase the museum's extensive collection of art, much of which came from the NASA Art Program. This week, we're revisiting a classic AirSpace episode all about that program and its connection to the Museum.

The NASA Art Program was organized beginning in the 1960s, where a small number of American artists got tons of access to launch sites, clean rooms, space suits, spacecraft—you name it, they painted it. The result was thousands of works that represented some (but not all, not by a long shot) of the most important art ever inspired by space exploration. In this episode, we sketch out the origin story of a space agency art’s program, explain where our museum enters the picture, and explore works within and beyond the NASA art scene.

Thanks to our guests in this episode, artists Jamie Wyeth and E.V. Day.

Find the transcript for this episode and more information at https://airandspace.si.edu/airspace-podcast/Art-Decade-Revisited.

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If you haven’t been to the National Air and Space Museum in D.C. for a while, you may notice a few things have changed…actually, just about everything in the building, including the building itself, has been completely overhauled. What started as some exterior renovation more than a decade ago became a complete reimagining of our iconic museum. Every exhibit space has been redesigned with 40% more artifacts on display than before.

In the fourth and final episode of our limited series “50 Years of Air + Space,” we discuss the history, intentions, and process of this project we call Transformation, and preview the exciting things in store for the decades ahead.

Special thanks to our guests in this episode (in order of appearance):

• Dr. Mike Neufeld, Retired Curator and Smithsonian Historian
• Beatrice Mowry, Exhibits Design Chair, National Air and Space Museum
• Chris Browne, John and Adrienne Mars Director at the National Air and Space Museum
• Dr. Lonnie Bunch, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
• Lisa Young, Supervisory Objects Conservator, National Air and Space Museum
• Dr. Tina Menendez, Director of the Bezos Learning Center at the National Air and Space Museum

Find the transcript of this episode and more information at https://s.si.edu/50YearsE4.

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AirSpace is made possible through the generous support of Lockheed Martin.

As the National Air and Space Museum built its collection and its identity, it also needed to find its footing as a place for science and research. In the third episode of our four-part limited series “50 Years of Air + Space,” we’re exploring the history of scholarship at the Museum. We’ll dive into early debates over what type of research this new Museum would do and what type of academics would be a part of the team. We also hear the stories of how we came to host the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, and how the study of the history and culture of aerospace became core to our mission.

Thanks to our guests in this episode:

• Dr. Ted Maxwell, Retired Chair of CEPS
• Dr. Mike Neufeld, Retired Curator and Smithsonian Historian
• Dr. Cathleen Lewis, Curator
• Dr. Tom Crouch, Curator Emeritus and Smithsonian Historian

Find the transcript for this episode and more information at https://s.si.edu/50YearsEp3

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter at https://s.si.edu/airspacenewsletter.

AirSpace is made possible with the generous support of Lockheed Martin.

The National Air and Space Museum’s building in downtown Washington DC just turned 50 years old, but the Museum’s story began long before the ribbon-cutting in 1976. In this episode, we’re continuing our four-part limited series “50 Years of Air + Space” by going back in time for the Museum’s origin story. We’ll explore early aerospace connections and artifacts at the Smithsonian and the interesting places they were displayed before a permanent home came together. We’ll also learn when and why “and Space” was added to our name, how competing visions of the Museum shaped what it became, and who worked to help bring it into reality.

Thanks to our guests in this episode:

• Dr. Mike Neufeld, Emeritus Curator and Smithsonian Historian
• Dr. Jieun Shin, Professor and Researcher, Sejong University
• Dr. Tom Crouch, Emeritus Curator

Find the transcript for this episode and more information at https://s.si.edu/50YearsEp2.

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter at https://s.si.edu/airspacenewsletter.

AirSpace is made possible with the generous support of Lockheed Martin.

On July 1, 1976, the National Air and Space Museum opened its doors to the public. It was an unforgettable debut for an iconic building, complete with a flyover from the Air Force’s Thunderbirds, speeches from President Gerald Ford (and a certain Apollo astronaut), and a ribbon-cutting triggered by a signal from a spacecraft on its way to Mars.

There was nothing quite like the National Air and Space Museum at the time, and thousands of people lined up on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to be among the first to see artifacts like the Spirit of St Louis, the Apollo command module Columbia, and the Wright Flyer in the new building. Millions more have come through our doors over the last 50 years, and the Museum has continued to reinvent itself for future generations. Today on AirSpace, we’re launching our four-part limited series 50 Years of Air + Space with the story of our Museum’s Opening Day.

Thanks to all our guests in this episode (by order of appearance):

• Dr. Bob van der Linden - Acting Chair of Aeronautics
• Dr. Ted Maxwell - Retired Chair of the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies
• Dr. Tom Crouch - Emeritus Curator
• Dr. Cathleen Lewis - Curator of International Space Programs and Spacesuits
• Dr. Michael Neufeld - Emeritus Curator and Smithsonian Historian
• Dr. Lonnie G Bunch III - Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

Find the transcript for this episode and more information at s.si.edu/50YearsE1.

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter at s.si.edu/airspacenewsletter.

AirSpace is made possible with the generous support of Lockheed Martin.

We'll be back soon with new episodes of AirSpace! In the mean time, here's a treat from our friends at Sidedoor.

Orville and Wilbur Wright have been immortalized as the men who opened the skies to human flight. But could they have achieved such great heights without the wind beneath their wings—their sister? Katharine Wright was her brothers' biggest champion, official spokesperson, closest confidante, and the only one of the Wright siblings with a college degree. For years, Katharine, Wilbur, and Orville were inseparable—until tragedy and a love affair upended everything. This is the story of the Wright sibling that history almost left out.

Guests:

• Thomas Paone, curator at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum
• Tom Crouch, curator emeritus of the aeronautics division at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and author of The Bishop’s Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright

You can find the transcript of this episode and more information on our website.

One of the most commonly asked questions about living and working in space is where and how the astronauts sleep. Watching the astronauts set up their sleeping arrangements on the recent Artemis II mission around the moon got us thinking about this topic again, so we're revisiting a favorite episode from 2022.

Sleeping in space goes back almost as far as there have been people in space (specifically, a cosmonaut who caught some shuteye in 1961). Astronauts have slept in capsules, shuttles, space stations, and even on the Moon. Sleep is an important part of an astronaut’s health, particularly for longer duration missions. But from noisy crewmates to spaceship sounds and even the sheer excitement of it all, sleeping in space hasn’t always been easy. To find out what it’s really like, we speak with former astronaut Mike Massimino who relates his shuttle sleeping experience to a big slumber party. We’re catching Zs in zero-G, today on AirSpace.

Thanks to our guest in this episode:

• Mike Massimino, former astronaut

Find the transcript for this episode and more information at https://s.si.edu/AirSpaceSleep.

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