One of the best things about working at the National Air and Space Museum is going to the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility every now and then. The museum keeps aircraft that is being restored and artifacts that need special storage conditions–like spacesuits!—out there. Communications staff is required to accompany reporters working on stories about the museum’s artifacts, so whenever the story is about restoration or objects that are not on display, we get a chance to head out to Garber and hear the people who work on these artifacts talk about them.

The Smithsonian’s flight collection is the largest and most significant of its kind, with some 60,000 artifacts, including many of history’s most rare and iconic artifacts. Each time I go out to Garber I see something completely unexpected and remarkable, like the RX-2 experimental spacesuit that looks like a knight’s shining armor.

Garber

Or Neil Armstrong’s suit being carried out of the environmentally conditioned storage room:

Neil Armstrong Spacesuit Move
Related Topics Behind the scenes Spaceflight Human spaceflight
Twitter Comments? Contact Us
You may also like Vintage Aircraft Tool Cataloging, Re-housing and Preservation Project November 08, 2010 Restoring the Apollo Telescope Mount December 10, 2015 Comparing Alan Eustace’s Spacesuit with Neil Armstrong’s November 27, 2015 Building a Spacesuit out of Spare Parts September 11, 2015 Related Objects Pressure Suit, RX-2, Constant Volume, Experimental Object Pressure Suit, A7-L, Armstrong, Apollo 11, Flown Object