Sometimes seemingly ordinary people become extraordinary by staying remarkably calm and capable in a crisis. The crew of US Airways Flight 1549 performed exceptionally on January 15, 2009, when their Airbus A320 jetliner became disabled over New York City after flying through a flock of geese moments after they took off from LaGuardia Airport. Capt. Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey B. Skiles masterfully guided the powerless aircraft to an emergency “landing” on the Hudson River. Flight attendants Donna Dent, Doreen Welsh, and Sheila Dail quickly and safely evacuated all 150 passengers. Although the captain and crew modestly claimed they were “just doing what they were trained to do,” rarely has such an urgent situation been so capably executed to avert disaster. The successful end to US Airways Flight 1549 without fatalities lasted only a few minutes, but this remarkable achievement exemplified the value of training, experience, and professionalism for the safety of commercial aviation. That is why the National Air and Space Museum will be awarding them our Annual Trophy for Current Achievement for 2010.
Flight crew from US Airways flight 1549. From left to right: Chesley Sullenberger, Doreen Welsh, Donna Dent, Sheila Dail and Jeffrey Skiles.
The crew of flight 1549 will be participating in an online conference this Wednesday, April 28th, where they will be taking your questions about this heroic accomplishment. Please register now to join the conversation.
Bob Van der Linden is the chair of the Aeronautics Division of the National Air and Space Museum.
On April 28th, we will be awarding the National Air and Space Museum’s Trophy Award for Current and Lifetime Achievement. The Trophy was initiated in 1985 and has been given every year but one since then. This year, the Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., for a lifetime of service to aerospace, especially for his role in defining the responsibilities of Mission Control for human spaceflight at NASA. Anyone who has seen the Hollywood film Apollo 13 knows how crucial the mission controllers were in saving that mission and its crew from disaster. While the filmmakers may have exaggerated a few things, in that regard they were correct. Mission controllers—at first located at Cape Canaveral, later on in Houston—were critical to the success of all the human missions into space, and it was Kraft who determined their roles and responsibilities. By the time of the first crewed Apollo missions beginning in 1968, Kraft had been promoted to be Director of Flight Operations, and although he was no longer directly “in the loop” at Mission Control in Houston, the controllers on duty were all his disciples, following his plan.
Gene Kranz (center) and Chris Kraft (right) at the flight operations director console in the mission operations control room of JSC's mission control center.
Last July, Kraft spoke at the Museum along with the three Apollo 11 astronauts: Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong, and Edwin Aldrin, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the historic first human journey to the Moon’s surface.
In his remarks, Kraft reminded the audience how the success of Apollo depended on fundamental research done many years earlier at NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, at Langley Field, Virginia, a few miles from the town where Kraft grew up. He began working there in 1945, after graduating from college, and joined the Space Task Group shortly after the Soviet Union orbited Sputnik, when NACA was being absorbed into the newly-created NASA. It was from those humble beginnings that the triumphs of America’s space program emerged.
Dr. Chris Kraft will be participating in a live, online educational conference on Wednesday, April 28th. Registration for the event is now open.
Paul Ceruzzi is a curator specializing in aerospace computing and electronics in the Division of Space History at the National Air and Space Museum.
I teach an exhibition design course as an adjunct professor for the George Washington University’s Museum Studies program. I tell my students I’ve got the best job in the world: designing exhibitions for the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. They often ask what you need to know to be an exhibit designer and how they can get there, too.
Some of the many paths to this profession include education and training in graphic design, architecture, interior design, fine arts, industrial design, theater set design and interactive media. You don’t have to be an expert in any of these areas (I’m not), but what helps is having a very broad range of interests. For example, here are a few of mine:
Art: I majored in Fine Arts (Graphics) and have a master’s in Theater Set Design. Art is my first love.
Objects: Objects tell powerful stories and mean different things to different people. I’m a collector.
History: The stories, events and people associated with objects truly fascinate me. I can’t get enough!
Math: I use basic math to make detailed structural drawings of exhibits and build scale models. Fun!
Culture: I love learning about different cultures. When I work on an exhibition design, I keep in mind the diverse ages, nationalities and levels of education of our visitors.
Writing: The words in an exhibit interpret the objects and tell the related stories. I enjoy digging into the content, reading up on the subject and thinking of ways to make it accessible to a general audience.
Science: I discovered how much I like science when I worked on an exhibition on the physics of flight. That’s another great thing about working in a museum: you learn so much with every new project!
Jenna Kush posing in front of her banner
Each year, my GWU students select a topic related to the content of an exhibition currently under development. They conduct research, write label scripts, select photographs and design 3- by 5-foot banners to be displayed temporarily in the Museum. They work with museum curators, designers, educators, archivists and a script editor throughout the semester to design and refine their banners. Most have no prior knowledge of the assigned topic, so the project is a true reflection, in miniature, of the exhibit design process.
This year’s student exhibit topic is satellite navigation technology. The 20 graduate students researched the history of satellite navigation, the cultural implications of social uses of GPS technology and the science of satellite operations and launch methods. They wrote exhibit labels in language that would be universally accessible, selected photographs of important objects to tell their stories, used basic math to scan and scale the photographs for correct resolution and used art skills to create an attractive layout design for their final banners. The results speak for themselves. The student banners are worthy of display in the world’s most visited museum and you can see them in the National Air and Space Museum’s “West End” gallery, right next to the flight simulator room.
Corina Miclea posing in front of her banner
The George Washington University student banners will be on display through May 2010 and possibly longer. Come check them out!
Barbara Brennan is Chair of Exhibits Design at the National Air and Space Museum.
The Exploring the Planets Gallery in the National Air and Space Museum’s National Mall Building recently underwent a major update to the section devoted to scientific exploration of Mars. This new exhibit features the results of the Mars Exploration Rovers, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Express, and other recent spacecraft that have revolutionized our ideas about the surface, atmosphere, ice deposits, and ancient water on the Red Planet.
New Mars Section of the Exploring the Planets Gallery at the National Air and Space Museum
Visitors will find fantastically detailed images of the surface taken from orbit by the HiRISE camera, a full-scale model of a Mars Exploration Rover, instruments used by the Viking spacecraft to make the first searches for life, views inside the polar caps provided by radar sensors, a watch that runs on “Martian time,” and a chunk of rock that landed in Antarctica after being blasted from the surface of Mars by an impact. The new exhibit puts all this information together to reveal Mars as a complex and still-puzzling world that holds valuable clues to the development of our own planet and those around other stars.
We welcome comments on the new exhibit. Please note that installation of a few items, such as the Mars rover model, have been delayed due to the weather-related problems at the Museum’s storage facility.
Bruce Campbell is a geologist in the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the National Air and Space Museum
Every year as the anniversary of the first human spaceflight approaches, I receive calls inquiring about the validity of Yuri Gagarin’s claim as the first human in space. The legitimate questions focus on the fact that Gagarin did not land inside his spacecraft. The reasoning goes that since he did not land inside his spacecraft, he disqualified himself from the record books. This might seem to be a very reasonable argument, but Gagarin remains the first man in space. The justification for Gagarin remaining in that position lies in the organization that sets the standards for flight.
Soviet cosmonaut Major Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin, probably on or about April 12, 1961, when he made his orbital space flight in Vostok 1.
The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) is the world’s air sports federation. It was founded in 1905 as a non-governmental and non-profit making international organization to further aeronautical and astronautical activities worldwide. Among its duties, the FAI certifies and registers records. Its first records in aviation date back to 1906. The organization also arbitrates disputes over records. If nationals from two different countries claim a record, it is the FAI’s job to examine the submitted documentation and make a ruling as to who has accomplished the feat first. When it was apparent that the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were planning to launch men into space, the FAI specified spaceflight guidelines. One of the stipulations that the FAI carried over from aviation was that spacecraft pilots, like aircraft pilots should land inside their craft in order for the record to be valid. In the case of aviation, this made perfect sense. No one wanted to encourage pilots to sacrifice themselves for an aviation record. Piloting an aircraft that could not land did nothing to further aeronautical engineering.
When Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth on 12 April 1961, the plan had never been for him to land inside his Vostok spacecraft. His spherical reentry capsule came through the Earth’s atmosphere on a ballistic trajectory. Soviet engineers had not yet perfected a braking system that would slow the craft sufficiently for a human to survive impact. They decided to eject the cosmonaut from his craft. Yuri Gagarin ejected at 20,000 feet and landed safely on Earth. Soviet engineers had not discussed this shortcoming with Soviet delegates to the FAI prior to his flight. They prepared their documents for the FAI omitting this fact. This led everyone to believe that Gagarin had landed inside his spacecraft. It was not until four months later, when German Titov became the second human to orbit the Earth and the first person to spend a full day in space, when the controversy began to brew. Titov owned up to ejecting himself. This led to a special meeting of the delegates to the FAI to reexamine Titov’s spaceflight records. The conclusion of the delegates was to rework the parameters of human spaceflight to recognize that the great technological accomplishment of spaceflight was the launch, orbiting and safe return of the human, not the manner in which he or she landed. Gagarin and Titov’s records remained on the FAI books. Even after Soviet -made models of the Vostok spacecraft made it clear that the craft had no braking capability, the FAI created the Gagarin Medal that it awards annually to greatest aviation or space achievement of that year.
One should keep other examples of a sports federations’ reconsideration of rules in the face of new techniques and technologies in mind when considering the FAI Gagarin decision. The underwater dolphin kick in freestyle swimming and the introduction of the clap skate in speed skating both caused initial international flaps. After the respective sports federations voted to accept these changes, that ended the controversy. Yes, Gagarin did not follow the rules that the FAI established before his flight. However, as is true with any sports organization, the FAI reserved the right to reexamine and reinterpret its rules in light of new knowledge and circumstances. Yuri Gagarin remains indisputably the first person in space and the concept that the first cosmonauts had to land inside their spacecraft is a faded artifact of the transition from aviation to spaceflight.
Cathleen S. Lewis is the curator of international space programs and spacesuits at the National Air and Space Museum.
In addition to the “Apollo 11 Codices”, the National Air and Space Museum holds approximately 150 works by the artist Mitchell Jamieson (1915 – 1976). The “Apollo 11 Codices” exemplify Jamieson’s journalistic style of painting, which was one reason NASA brought him into its Fine Art Program. Aboard the U.S.S. Hornet, Jamieson sketched the seamen working to recover the capsule and crew from the successful Apollo 11 mission. Jamieson was known for his depictions of the onlookers at major events rather than the events themselves. This style allows the viewer to believe that they are there as part of the crowd, feeling the energy and excitement.
Three of Jamieson’s works are traveling as part of the exhibition “NASA Art: Fifty Years of Exploration” organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) in cooperation with NASA and the National Air and Space Museum. Two of his paintings hang on the third floor of the Museum, including “There!” near the Director’s office. A painting on board, “There!,” shows the seamen aboard the U.S.S. Hornet pointing to the sky, seeing the Columbia command module descending on its parachute. As with his sketches in “Apollo 11 Codices,” he allows us to join in the excitement of this great moment of human achievement.
There! by Mitchell Jamieson
Before World War II, Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes commissioned Jamieson to paint a mural for the new Interior Building depicting the Marian Anderson concert on the National Mall entitled “An Incident in Contemporary American Life”. Ickes and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt had organized this concert after Marian Anderson was denied singing at Constitution Hall due to the color of her skin. In the mural, Jamieson concentrates on the crowd— even giving us portraits of individuals that we would be standing next to—straining to hear the concert which inaugurated the use of the Lincoln Memorial as a sight for civil rights protests.
An Incident in Contemporary American Life by Mitchell Jamieson Courtesy of the U.S. General Services Administration, Fine Arts Program
Jamieson, who was born in Kensington, Maryland and studied at the Corcoran School, was an official combat artist for the U.S. Navy during World War II, where he depicted the invasion of Sicily, the invasion at Normandy, as well as the Japanese surrender on board the U.S.S. Missouri. Jamieson was awarded the Bronze Star by the U.S. Navy for his work. In addition to his renderings for NASA of Apollo recoveries, Jamieson covered Mercury missions as well as a Saturn launch.
Jamieson volunteered as a civilian artist for the U.S. Army in Vietnam. This effort took an enormous toll from which he was not to recover. In 1976 he took his own life.
Sources: biographies from the Archives of AskArt and the Navy Museum.
Hunter Hollins is Loan Manager for the Space History Division of the National Air and Space Museum.
I have a really cool job. When I’m out and someone asks: “What do you do?” I reply: “I work at the National Air and Space Museum.” The response is usually: “Wow, that’s cool” and then I say: “Yes it is very cool.” One of the things that makes being an educator here great is our teaching collection. I’m lucky, I work with a curatorial and collections staff that considers our needs as educators and provides the public with deaccessioned items they can touch and examine up close. Our teaching collection currently contains real space food, shuttle tiles, bits of airplanes, meteorites, uniforms and other assorted items. However, not all the items are real; our most popular replica is the shuttle era space suit. The suit has been part of the Discovery Station Program for over ten years. It was purchased with a grant from the Smithsonian Women’s Committee and is part of the Living and Working in Space Discovery Station, our most popular station, largely because of the suit. The station gets an average of 40,000 visitors yearly, but that’s only a portion of the crowds the suit sees. It has also become a key object used for family days, story times and school tours.
Mock Space Shuttle Suit
Beth Wilson demonstrates dressing for space
During the summer of 2006, I was rolling the suit back into its case and the glove fell off. I took a good look at the suit and was distressed to see how it was aging. Hundreds of thousands of hands touching it over the years had taken their toll. But I allowed it to be used with the public while I pondered where I could find $45,000 to replace it. With no funding forthcoming, the suit just wouldn’t survive another busy season. I decided that it should remain on view in its case and brought out only for special programs.
As the Museum’s Development office looked for funding sources, someone mentioned our aging suit to ILC Dover’s Bill Ayrey. ILC Dover is the company that designs and manufactures NASA’s space suits, beginning with the Apollo Missions. Bill generously offered to repair the suit. So, last fall Bill drove down, picked up our suit and took it to ILC Dover. The very talented seamstresses sewed on new arms, Bill cleaned the pants, re-stuffed the suit, acquired recent mission patches and updated the gloves. The crew at ILC Dover could not have been more helpful or generous with their time and talent. I am grateful for all the effort that went into the refurbishment. I can honestly say it looks brand new. In fact, Bill and his crew did such a good job that an ILC employee mistook it for a real shuttle suit!
ILC Seamstresses pose with the newly repaired suit
The suit made it back to the museum last month. I was on the phone with a colleague at another museum when the call came in that Bill had arrived. I told her: “I’m sorry. I’ll have to call you later, my space suit is back from ILC!” To which she replied: “You have the coolest job ever.” “Yes,” I said. “Yes, I do.”
Beth Wilson is the Discovery Station Program Coordinator at the National Air and Space Museum.
In the summer of 2009 the United States celebrated the fortieth anniversary of the first Moon landing, Apollo 11. Amidst all of the hoopla virtually every news story, especially in the electronic world, made some comment about a supposedly rising belief that humans have never landed on the Moon. Why?
This image of Buzz Aldrin saluting the U.S. flag on the Moon in 1969 is often used by Moon landing deniers as evidence that the landing was filmed on Earth, because the flag appears to be waving in the breeze, and we all know there is no breeze on the Moon. When astronauts were planting the flagpole they rotated it back and forth to better penetrate the lunar soil (anyone who’s set a blunt tent-post will know how this works). Of course the flag waved—no breeze required!
Of course, from almost the point of the first Apollo missions, a small group of Americans have denied that it had taken place. This group seems to be expanding as the events of Apollo recede into history. Aided by a youth movement that does not remember what went down in the Apollo era and for whom distrust of government runs high, it is among that cadre of Americans where those who are skeptical have proliferated. Jaded by so many other government scandals, these younger members of society whose recollection of Apollo is distant to begin with finds it easy to believe the questioning they see on myriad Moon hoax web sites. Lack of understanding of science and failure to employ critical analytical skills make them more susceptible to this type of hucksterism.
There has been considerable research on the parts of society that embrace conspiracy theories of all types. Arguing that conspiracism writ large represents a fundamental part of the political system, legal scholar Mark Fenster claims in Conspiracy Theories:Secrecy and Power in American Culture (Minnesota, 2008), that such conspiracies represent “a polarization so profound that people end up with an unshakable belief that those in power ‘simply can’t be trusted’.”
At the time of the first landings, opinion polls showed that overall less than five percent “doubted the moon voyage had taken place.” Fueled by conspiracy theorists of all stripes, this number has grown over time. In a 2004 poll, while overall numbers remained about the same, among Americans between 18 and 24 years old “27% expressed doubts that NASA went to the Moon,” according to pollster Mary Lynne Dittmar. Doubt is different from denial, but this represents a trend that seemed to be growing over time among those who did not witness the events.
Perhaps this situation should not surprise us. A lot of other truly weird beliefs exist in society. Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt has been philosophical about this turn: “If people decide they’re going to deny the facts of history and the facts of science and technology, there’s not much you can do with them. For most of them, I just feel sorry that we failed in their education.”
While it is inappropriate for us to take this denial seriously and opinion surveys show consistently that few do, for those raised in the postmodern world of the latter twentieth century where the nature of truth is so thoroughly questioned it is more likely to gain a footing.
The media, especially, have fueled doubts over the years. While this may not be viewed as a definitive statement, a child’s bib I have seen places the blame squarely on the media’s back. It reads: “Once upon a time people walked on the moon. They picked up some rocks. They planted some flags. They drove a buggy around for a while. Then they came back. At least that’s what grandpa said. The TV guy said it was all fake. Grandpa says the TV guy is an idiot. Someday, I want to go to the moon too.”
No question, the February 2001 airing of the Fox special Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon? changed the nature of the debate. In this instance a major network presented a conspiracy scenario without any serious rebuttal that might have been offered. As USA Today (April 9, 2001) reported in the aftermath of the show: “According to Fox and its respectfully interviewed ‘experts’—a constellation of ludicrously marginal and utterly uncredentialed ‘investigative journalists’—the United States grew so eager to defeat the Soviets in the intensely competitive 1960s space race that it faked all six Apollo missions.”
The Decision to Go to the Moon: President John F. Kennedy's May 25, 1961 speech before a Joint Session of Congress, in Washington DC, USA. Vice President Lyndon Johnson (left) and Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn (right) are in the background.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans made it possible to reach the Moon. This launch of Apollo 11 represents one of the most watched events in human history. It defies credulity that so many people could have perpetrated such a hoax.
The Fox show raised the profile of Moon landing deniers. And it sparked considerable response. Marc Norman at the University of Tasmania quipped, “Fox should stick to making cartoons. I’m a big fan of The Simpsons!”
Whereas NASA had refrained from officially responding to these charges—avoiding anything that might dignify the claims—the Fox show demanded that it change its approach. After the Fox program first aired, NASA released a one-paragraph press release entitled, “Apollo: Yes, We Did,” that was minimalist to say the least. It also posted a NASA information sheet originally issued in 1977 to readdress some of the concerns and pointed people with questions to various Internet sites containing responses. NASA officials added, “To some extent debating this subject is an insult to the thousands who worked for years to accomplish the most amazing feats of exploration in history. And it certainly is an insult to the memory of those who have given their lives for the exploration of space.”
Denials of the Moon landings appropriately should be denounced as crackpot ideas. I look forward to the time when we return to the Moon and can tour “Tranquility Base” for ourselves.
Roger D. Launius is a senior curator in the Space History Division of the National Air and Space Museum.
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