Space Museum

When Lockheed Martin Corp. gave the National Air and Space Museum $10 million for a new annex, the aerospace manufacturer got a lot more than its name on the popular IMAX theater in the main building. It got a definite public relations nightmare. Some influential members of Congress had been watching with growing irritation as the Smithsonian Institution, parent organization of 16 government-supported museums along the National Mall, aggressively courted commercial donors.

Justin Luebbert was poking around the National Air and Space Museum with his mother, Joanne, when she pulled him into an elevator and whispered to him that the space shuttle Challenger had blown up in midair a few minutes before. "Since I am only 9," the boy from Chantilly, Va., said yesterday, "I haven't seen a lot of sad things. There was this teacher I saw on television and she was very happy and now she is dead. "I feel very, very sad, like something inside of me is just lost.

A nonprofit group plans to present Willingboro's council tonight with a concept for a large-scale "River Route Edu-Tainment Complex" off Route 130. The complex would be built at Willingboro Lakes Nature Preserve and contain three large domes housing themed activities: video and virtual-reality games; a conservatory and botanical gardens; and a space museum and an interactive broadcast media exhibit. The cost would be $45 million to $50 million. James W. Adkins 3d, president and chief executive officer of Messengers of Peace Development, said the goal was to draw generations together while entertaining and teaching them.

It's interesting that some of the same people who have been blasting President Obama as a spendthrift who has put this country on a path to economic ruin also criticize him for being frugal when it comes to space exploration. These critics decry Obama's decision to retire the ancient space-shuttle fleet and instead have U.S. scientists hitch rides with the Russians to the International Space Station as being equivalent to sharing a bunk with Mephistopheles. But they mislead when they suggest that Obama has turned his back on manned spaceflight.

CHANTILLY, Va. - NASA turned over space shuttle Discovery on Thursday to the Smithsonian Institution, the first in its orbiter fleet to be transferred to a U.S. museum. The U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps, astronauts including former Sen. John Glenn, and several thousand visitors with American flags greeted Discovery. It will retire as an artifact representing the 30-year shuttle program. The world's most traveled spaceship had been lifted off its Boeing 747 carrier and towed to the National Air and Space Museum's massive hangar facility near Washington Dulles International Airport.

I. Michael Heyman, 81, who was the first nonscientist to lead the Smithsonian Institution, after serving as chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, has died. Mr. Heyman died at his Berkeley home Saturday after a long battle with emphysema. The Smithsonian and the university announced his death Monday. During five years as chief of the world's largest museum and research complex, Mr. Heyman oversaw creation of the Smithsonian's first website and an affiliations network that now includes 170 museums across the country.

Just before dawn yesterday, in the frigid temperatures of the stratosphere, an eerie-looking black aircraft took a running start off the Pacific Coast, belched green flame from its engines and flung itself inland. With skunks painted on its tailfins, the craft shot through the atmosphere faster than a rifle bullet, its titanium fuselage expanding slightly from the 550-degree temperatures generated by air friction. Blasting through a radar "gate" 60,000 feet above sleeping Los Angeles, the jet left a wake of faint thunder as it streaked across the continent at thrice the speed of sound and hurtled through a final radar gate near Salisbury, Md. Elapsed time for the 2,404.

It's shameful that political pressure caused the Smithsonian Institution to scuttle its attempt to tell the story of the Enola Gay and America's dropping of the first atomic bomb, museum officials and historians said last week. But where exactly the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum plunged off the track - and whether the whole controversy could have been avoided - was a matter of debate. "It was disappointing the way it was resolved," said Brent Glass, executive director of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

This year, students at Coatesville's Gordon Elementary School won't get a chance to sit in a space simulator, but they may get an opportunity next year. The Traveling Space Museum was all set to appear in Coatesville for the scheduled Space Day Monday, but three weeks ago the visit was canceled. The privately owned museum is a mobile interactive science exhibit based in Los Angeles. Chalk it all up to what everyone now says was a misunderstanding. One of the nonprofit museum's donors, Ivan Sims, a Coatesville native who works in Beverly Hills, felt he needed to get permission from Coatesville's City Council president, Patsy Ray, to take the show to the school.

Paul A. Hanle, head of the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore for the last eight years, has been named president and chief executive officer of the 184-year-old Academy of Natural Sciences, the nation's oldest natural history museum. The appointment ends a search that began at the end of last year after the abrupt resignation of Keith S. Thomson, who headed the academy for eight years. Thomson's exit was one in a series of high-level staff departures over the last couple of years and called attention to what many observers saw as a lack of institutional focus and vision at the academy.

It's interesting that some of the same people who have been blasting President Obama as a spendthrift who has put this country on a path to economic ruin also criticize him for being frugal when it comes to space exploration. These critics decry Obama's decision to retire the ancient space-shuttle fleet and instead have U.S. scientists hitch rides with the Russians to the International Space Station as being equivalent to sharing a bunk with Mephistopheles. But they mislead when they suggest that Obama has turned his back on manned spaceflight.

CHANTILLY, Va. - NASA turned over space shuttle Discovery on Thursday to the Smithsonian Institution, the first in its orbiter fleet to be transferred to a U.S. museum. The U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps, astronauts including former Sen. John Glenn, and several thousand visitors with American flags greeted Discovery. It will retire as an artifact representing the 30-year shuttle program. The world's most traveled spaceship had been lifted off its Boeing 747 carrier and towed to the National Air and Space Museum's massive hangar facility near Washington Dulles International Airport.

I. Michael Heyman, 81, who was the first nonscientist to lead the Smithsonian Institution, after serving as chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, has died. Mr. Heyman died at his Berkeley home Saturday after a long battle with emphysema. The Smithsonian and the university announced his death Monday. During five years as chief of the world's largest museum and research complex, Mr. Heyman oversaw creation of the Smithsonian's first website and an affiliations network that now includes 170 museums across the country.

Standing amid huge refurbished vintage war aircraft at the Harold F. Pitcairn Wings of Freedom Museum, Alfred "Fred" Hagen and Maj. Gen. Ronald Nelson look quite average. But their passion to keep the historic aircraft there is anything but. Hagen wants to expand the museum - which includes aircraft ranging from a German Messerschmitt Me 262, the first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft used in World War II, to a restored Bell H-13 chopper, the type seen in the opening credits of "M A S H" - and turn it into a world-class flight museum rivaling the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Colonel Lap was doing what he does best - telling a story - when a buddy interrupted to testify about Lap's skill as a pilot, his splendid character and appealing personality. Lap endured the praise for about 20 seconds and then broke in: "That's too much frosting on the cake. I'm giving him facts; you're giving him baloney. " Typical Lap, those who know him say. Lap, 86, is a volunteer tour guide at the Harold F. Pitcairn Wings of Freedom Aviation Museum at the former Willow Grove Naval Air Station.

Here's a factoid, courtesy of the Internet Movie Database: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian marks the second time that Napoleon Bonaparte and Abraham Lincoln have appeared in the same film. The first? Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Which, by the way, is a vastly more meaningful moviegoing experience than this knee-jerk sequel to the surprise 2006 Ben Stiller smash. A super-size rehash of the original - transplanted from New York's Museum of Natural History to the sprawling mall of museums run by the Smithsonian in Washington - this family-friendly vehicle once again stars Stiller as the museum guard who communes with objects and artifacts on display after the doors close for the day. Except this time, as Night at the Museum - Part Duh begins, Stiller's Larry Daley is no longer employed as a guard.

This year, students at Coatesville's Gordon Elementary School won't get a chance to sit in a space simulator, but they may get an opportunity next year. The Traveling Space Museum was all set to appear in Coatesville for the scheduled Space Day Monday, but three weeks ago the visit was canceled. The privately owned museum is a mobile interactive science exhibit based in Los Angeles. Chalk it all up to what everyone now says was a misunderstanding. One of the nonprofit museum's donors, Ivan Sims, a Coatesville native who works in Beverly Hills, felt he needed to get permission from Coatesville's City Council president, Patsy Ray, to take the show to the school.

A nonprofit group plans to present Willingboro's council tonight with a concept for a large-scale "River Route Edu-Tainment Complex" off Route 130. The complex would be built at Willingboro Lakes Nature Preserve and contain three large domes housing themed activities: video and virtual-reality games; a conservatory and botanical gardens; and a space museum and an interactive broadcast media exhibit. The cost would be $45 million to $50 million. James W. Adkins 3d, president and chief executive officer of Messengers of Peace Development, said the goal was to draw generations together while entertaining and teaching them.

In a city laden with museums, Washington hasn't seen anything quite like it. The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), which opens today at the foot of the Capitol, is a unique new presence. In its design, presentation and operation, the $219 million edification of the history of Native Americans is a startling departure from its cultural brethren that limn the National Mall. "We have an eclectic collection of buildings," said Smithsonian Institution head Lawrence Small.