While only tangentially related to warbirds, it is hard to imagine that any of us weren’t keenly aware of the celebrations last year regarding the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landings made by the crew of Apollo 11 in July, 1969. The Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum (NASM), in Washington, DC, has long been the home for Apollo 11’s command capsule, Columbia, but as most of us will know from our previous articles HERE, Columbia has spent roughly two years shuttling from one major museum to another across the US to help celebrate the golden anniversary of Armstrong, Aldrin and Collin’s historic journey.
NASM has just announced that Columbia is due home very soon; she will go on display at the museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia on March 3rd. That same day, the museum will be hosting presentations describing the artifact, and conservation efforts involved with its preservation. For younger visitors, there will also be what NASM describes as a “special Moon-themed Flights of Fancy story time and hands-on activity.”
Columbia will be on view at Udvar-Hazy for about a year before NASM moves the spacecraft again to prepare her for display in 2022 at their main campus in Washington, DC. This facility is currently undergoing major renovations, part of which will see a significant new exhibit dedicated to lunar exploration named Destination Moon. Columbia will become its center-piece, sitting alongside the space suit which Neil Armstrong wore during the Apollo 11 mission, and other related artifacts. We look forwards to sharing more information about this display once the information becomes available.
