In the boeing milestones flight all at the center of the museum and this is the hall where we display the pioneering aircraft and spacecraft that transformed the modern world. When this Museum Opened in july 1976, almost every space artifact on display had recently been in the news. This was very much a museum of contemporary spaceflight and it was for most people, their first chance to see what had been lauded in the 1960s and early 1970s during this heroic age of space exploration, when humans first ventured off the planet into space and all the way to the moon, when the United States and the soviet union began sending craft out to explore the nearby planets. All of this was exciting, thrilling, and people just flocked into the museum to see it. In the 40 years since the building opened, we have continued to acquire treasures of space history. We have now about 17,000 artifacts related to space history. We have just over 1000 of them on display in two locations here in the washington
Earlier, only a small percentage is here. You have more in storage than youre able to show. We just have a certain percentage here. But its quite a few of the artifacts are on loan or in storage. Jeremy kinney, thank you very much for you time. Thank you. Happy 40th birthday. Thank you very much. Its more than aviation, its also Space Exploration from moon to mars as we continue our tour inside this museum. Well start our tour right here with the lunar module. The icon for the landing on the moon in july 1969. It actually has a companion spacecraft, the apollo command module. And the command module and the Service Module and the lunar module together carried three astronauts, Neil Armstrong, buzz aldrin and Michael Colin to the moon. The command module also brought them back safely. This lunar module is an actual lunar module that never flew in space. Lunar module 2. It was intended to be used in a test flight but the test was canceled as unnecessary. So nasa transferred this lunar mod
Theyre part of the original collection here in fact, and we were provided those during the period where we were destroying those launch vehicles in both russia and here. We have another call from steve in new york. Steve, go ahead, please. Caller hello, general . Is anybody on the other end there . Yes, we are. We can hear you. Caller hello . Go ahead, steve. Hello. Caller you know, when columbus sailed for america, he didnt know it at the time, but Queen Isabella funded his expedition. And they were looking for known treasure, a shorter way to the orient to get spices, and he collided with the American Continent by accident. And we know for a certainty that there on the moon and on mars theres not a blade of grass, theres not a glass of water, theres not a breath of fresh air. So, you know, you risk life and limb to go to a better ace. But we have that right here on earth. Why would we want to go there, moon or mars . Can someone explain that to me . Thank you for the call. Well, you