Air & Spacecraft

Air & Spacecraft

Models in the LSM Lobby

Look Up! Hanging from the ceiling high above the museum’s lobby are detailed flight models of the 1903 Wright Flyer, the Gemini Spacecraft, and the Space Shuttle. There is also an actual, inert Loki-Dart Sounding Rocket. Find information panels about each one and get a closer look from the second floor balcony.

1903 Wright Flyer

This aircraft was used to conduct the first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air human flight on December 17, 1903. Orville Wright piloted the yer for 12 seconds, covering 120 feet.

Gemini Spacecraft

Much of the information NASA needed for a successful moon landing was learned on Gemini missions. Ten piloted Gemini spacecraft flew in 1965 and 1966.

Space Shuttle

Design and testing began in 1969, with the aim of developing a reusable orbital spacecraft designed to launch vertically like a rocket and land like an aircraft upon reentry. Five Shuttle systems were built and used on a total of 135 missions between 1981 to 2011, before the Shuttle Program ended.

Loki-Dart Sounding Rocket

A research rocket designed to launch on short flights that do not go into orbit. In nautical terms, to sound means throwing a weighted line overboard to measure the depth of water. Sounding rockets get their name because they are used to take scientific measurements.