At Home in Space opened in Washington on 30 October, tracing the journey from shuttle missions to life aboard the International Space Station and possible future exploration. It follows seven years of renovation work costing nearly $1 billion.
The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum opened “At Home in Space” on 30 October, bringing all of its spaceflight galleries in Washington, DC, back into public use. The exhibition follows “Moving Beyond Earth” and explores how people moved from visiting space to living there.
Gallery curator Jennifer Levasseur said the exhibition moves from space shuttle preparation to long-duration life aboard the International Space Station, then looks toward possible next steps in exploration. Visitors can see a shuttle main engine, a prototype humanoid robot called Robonaut 1A and a spacesuit used in space.
The building’s renovation began in 2018 and included new exhibitions, exterior recladding and replacement of mechanical systems. The first half reopened in 2022 with eight new or reimagined galleries, the Northrop Grumman Planetarium, museum store and Mars Café. A second phase opened in 2025 with five new galleries, followed by five additional galleries on 1 July 2026. Ars Technica said the project involved seven years of work and cost nearly $1 billion.
The displayed spacesuit is an extravehicular mobility unit, a reusable suit designed for spacewalks with interchangeable parts to fit different astronauts, unlike Apollo-era suits sized to each astronaut. Introduced in the early shuttle program, the same suits remain in use for US spacewalks from the International Space Station. Levasseur said that, as far as she knows, it is the first and potentially the only public display worldwide of a fully flown set of that equipment. The display has only the shell of a life-support backpack, however, because functioning backpacks are still needed for use.
Visitors can walk through a full-size mock-up of Destiny, the space station’s US laboratory. Equipment appears beside, above and below them; interactive displays and crew artifacts include coffee cups designed for microgravity, the near-weightless conditions experienced in orbit. Levasseur said planned floor images of cables were dropped because visitors might mistake them for a tripping hazard, while labels show that work takes place overhead and underfoot.
The gallery also displays shuttle flight clothes worn on separate missions by Guion “Guy” Bluford, the first African American astronaut, and Sally Ride, the first US woman in space.
Recovered pieces from Challenger and Columbia honor those lost during the shuttle program, Levasseur said. They include an elevon hinge from Challenger that washed up on a beach, a wiring-panel fragment from its payload bay, a reinforced carbon-carbon T-panel from Columbia’s starboard wing and a compact disc on long-term loan from David Brown’s family. Challenger broke apart shortly after launch on 28 January 1986; Columbia disintegrated during re-entry on 1 February 2003. Each disaster killed all seven people aboard.
A scale model of Orion holds a place reserved for the Artemis I capsule, which flew to the Moon without astronauts in 2022. NASA is expected to deliver the capsule later in 2026.
The “Modern Military Aviation” gallery is scheduled to open on 11 November, after which the public will be able to visit the entire museum. Admission is free, but visitors need timed-entry passes for the building.
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