goSmithsonian - February 2009 - (Page 24) THE NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM’S STEVEN F. UDVAR-HAZY CENTER, continued from page 21 For Anyone Fascinated by Flight THE JAMES S. McDONNELL SPACE HANGAR The space hangar is organized around four main themes: rocketry and missiles, human spaceflight, application satellites and space science. HIGHLIGHTS The massive space shuttle Enterprise, NASA’s 1981 test vehicle, is the centerpiece of the hangar. Floating silently above is a space-walking astronaut wearing a manned maneuvering unit. A popular item from Hollywood science fiction is the model of an alien spacecraft used in the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” See if you can spot the hidden items added by the model-makers as inside jokes—a Volkswagen bus, a submarine and the R2-D2 android from “Star Wars.” ` The Next Moon Race — Robot Division (p. 20) The Phantom’s Final Mission How To Fly An Airliner From Home Where Rare Aircraft Fly For Fun (p. 40) Looking for really big stuff? Check out the 69-foot, floor-to-ceiling Redstone missile; the instrument ring segment—22-feet in diameter— of a Saturn V rocket that was never built; and the massive space shuttle main engine. From one extreme to the other, don’t miss the small stuff: aerial cameras, aircraft artillery, pilot uniforms, and aviation and space memorabilia. Among the tiniest and most unusual is “Anita,” a spider used in 1973 for web formation experiments aboard Skylab. The space shuttle Enterprise looms over this group of visitors in the cavernous James S. McDonnell Space Hangar, which is 262 feet long and 180 feet wide—plenty of space for housing rockets, missiles, satellites and more. Newest Surprises On Mars QF-4 Drone JANUARY 2009 US & CANADA $4.99 VIDEOS & PREVIEWS ANSWERS FROM EXPERTS NEW BLOGS PHOTO GALLERIES SIGN UP FOR OUR NEW E-NEWSLETTER goSmithsonian.com DANE PENLAND http://airspacemag.com http://www.goSmithsonian.com
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