Preserving the Future History of Space

As SpaceX and Blue Origin continue to make history by building rockets that will take future space vacationers to the Moon or Mars, the Museum is thinking about how to preserve the history of these private companies. Back in the 1960’s and up until now, it was easy for historians to access public records at NASA that documented the space race; and that’s not the case now. According to our Adjunct Curator for Space History, Geoff Nunn, “corporate archives are becoming ever more important, but private records don’t automatically make their way through the public record trail like NASA documents did.” Geoff and other space historians now have to ask themselves, “How do you archive a Slack thread?” and “What happens when YouTube goes under and we no longer have videos of launches?”

Did you know there’s a conference dedicated to answering these exact questions? Get more info at http://toboldlypreserve.space/

If you want to see the origins of the space race (and check out publicly accessibly NASA documents and photos!) stop by our APOLLO exhibit! And stay tuned for more great space experiences at the Museum with our upcoming Destination Moon exhibit!

Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission is an exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. This traveling exhibit comes to our Museum in 2019.

Producer: Sean Mobley

Host: Sean Mobley

Web Master: Layne Benofsky