New Ways of Exploring the Planets at National Air and Space Museum

New additions to the “Exploring the Planets” gallery at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum showcase past and current missions that study the worlds in the solar system. Visitors can learn about the dwarf planet, Pluto, in a new way with the addition of a full-scale model of the New Horizons spacecraft, and earlier this year, three generations of Mars Rovers went on display. All are now on permanent display in Washington, D.C.

New Horizons is the first spacecraft to explore Pluto, its moons and the icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt. Launched by NASA in 2006, its mission is to map the composition and surface features of Pluto and its moons and to search for new moons and rings. After its 9½-year journey, New Horizons is scheduled to have its closest approach to Pluto in July 2015. It is the first in the series of NASA’s New Frontiers missions, and the spacecraft will conduct a reconnaissance flyby study of Pluto and its moons this summer. The expanded display on Pluto in “Exploring the Planets” explains some of the findings that have already been discovered about the dwarf planet, as well as what New Horizons hopes to achieve.

“These spacecraft models show the rapid pace of progress in rovers that explore the surface of Mars and highlight new discoveries at the farthest reaches of our solar system,” said Bruce Campbell, chair of the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the National Air and Space Museum.

The new additions to "Exploring the Planets" are made possible through the support of NASA. More information about this gallery is available here.  

The National Air and Space Museum building on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is located at Sixth Street and Independence Avenue S.W. The museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is located in Chantilly, Va., near Washington Dulles International Airport. Attendance at both buildings combined exceeded 8 million in 2014, making it the most visited museum in America. The museum’s research, collections, exhibitions and programs focus on aeronautical history, space history and planetary studies. Both buildings are open from 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. every day (closed Dec. 25).

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