Exhibitions

Outside the Spacecraft: 50 Years of Extra-Vehicular Activity

January 8, 2015 – June 8, 2015

National Air and Space Museum
6th St. & Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC

2nd Floor, Flight and the Arts

See on Map Floor Plan

Extra-vehicular activity, or EVA—working outside a spacecraft—changed the nature of human spaceflight. It made possible walking on the Moon, servicing the Hubble Space Telescope, and building the International Space Station. It remains crucial to our ongoing presence in space.

EVA requires a wearable spacecraft—the spacesuit—and specialized tools for astronauts to survive in the hazardous environment of space. Since the first space walks of Aleksei Leonov and Edward White in 1965, more than 200 astronauts and cosmonauts have amassed over 1,000 hours of EVA experience.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of those first two ventures outside the spacecraft, this exhibition presents art, photography, artifacts, and personal accounts that relate the continuing story of EVA.

This exhibition is made possible through the generosity of NASA, National Air and Space Society, Omega Watches, and United Technologies Corporation.