"At Home in Space" opens, caps Air and Space Museum renovation

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After seven years of work and nearly $1 billion, the Smithsonian has completed the renovation of the National Air and Space Museum’s flagship building in Washington, DC. On October 30, the museum debuted its last-to-open spaceflight exhibition, returning “home” with a gallery devoted to establishing a spacefaring civilization.

经过七年的施工和近 10 亿美元的投入，史密森尼学会完成了位于华盛顿特区的国家航空航天博物馆旗舰大楼的翻新工程。10 月 30 日，该博物馆推出了其最后开放的航天展览，通过一个致力于建立太空文明的展厅，让人们回归“家园”。

“Welcome to ‘At Home in Space’!” said curator Jennifer Levasseur, who guided us through a virtual tour of the gallery. “This is the story of long-duration spaceflight in the last few decades. We generally call it ‘reaching orbit.’”

“欢迎来到‘太空之家’！”策展人詹妮弗·勒瓦瑟（Jennifer Levasseur）在带领我们进行虚拟导览时说道，“这是过去几十年里长期太空飞行的故事。我们通常称之为‘抵达轨道’。”

“It’s the prep story, the space shuttle story. It’s what allows us to end up at a place where we have 25-plus years of long-duration spaceflight experience, the capacity for humans to be living in space on the International Space Station (ISS), and then it carries that story forward. So the middle of our story then becomes the ISS, and the end of the story are the next steps,” said Levasseur.

“这是准备阶段的故事，也是航天飞机的故事。正是这些经历让我们积累了超过 25 年的长期太空飞行经验，使人类能够在国际空间站（ISS）上生活，并将这一故事延续下去。因此，我们故事的中段是国际空间站，而故事的结尾则是未来的步骤，”勒瓦瑟说。

“At Home in Space” takes visitors on a 50-plus-year journey of learning how humans can live and work in space continuously and venture beyond Earth orbit. Credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

“太空之家”带领游客踏上一段 50 多年的旅程，了解人类如何能够在太空中持续生活和工作，并向地球轨道之外进发。图片来源：史密森尼国家航空航天博物馆

Over the past several years, the National Air and Space Museum has introduced new galleries showcasing how US astronauts first entered space and landed on the Moon (“Destination Moon”); how robotic probes have explored every planet in our solar system (“Kenneth C. Griffin Exploring the Planets”); how technologies and infrastructure impact our daily lives (“RTX Living in the Space Age Hall”) and what approaches spaceflight will take in the years to come (“Futures in Space”).

在过去的几年里，国家航空航天博物馆推出了多个新展厅，展示了美国宇航员如何首次进入太空并登上月球（“月球目的地”）；机器人探测器如何探索太阳系中的每一颗行星（“肯尼斯·C·格里芬探索行星”）；技术和基础设施如何影响我们的日常生活（“RTX 太空时代生活馆”）；以及未来几年航天飞行将采取哪些方式（“太空未来”）。

“At Home in Space,” which follows the similarly themed “Moving Beyond Earth,” immerses guests in the equipment, spacecraft, and orbital platforms that have enabled humanity from simply visiting space to living there, setting up the near future for bases on the Moon and Mars.

“太空之家”紧随主题相似的“超越地球”展览之后，让游客沉浸在各种设备、航天器和轨道平台中，正是这些成就使人类从单纯的太空访问转变为在太空居住，并为未来在月球和火星建立基地奠定了基础。

“We have a great way to attract people into the gallery, which is this overhead mock-up of an astronaut on the end of the robotic arm, and then the backdrop to that is this photo mural—a full-size photo print—of the ISS,” said Levasseur. “Our astronaut up here is intended to be [an actual] person, but I’m not going to share who that is. They are wearing an Expedition 60 patch, so that’ll give you a little clue.”

“我们有一个吸引人们进入展厅的好方法，那就是头顶上这个宇航员在机械臂末端的模型，背景是一幅国际空间站的全尺寸照片墙，”勒瓦瑟说，“上面的宇航员模型是基于一位（真实存在的）人物设计的，但我不会透露是谁。他们佩戴着第 60 远征队的徽章，这算是一个小线索。”

Some of the gallery’s artifacts include a space shuttle main engine, Robonaut 1A (a prototype humanoid robot), and an extravehicular mobility unit (EMU) spacesuit. “It’s pretty damn special,” said Levasseur of the EMU. “This, as far as I know, is the first and potentially only public display of a fully flown set of EMU equipment in the world. I know NASA has one in its EVA office, but it is not on public display.”

展厅中的部分文物包括航天飞机主发动机、Robonaut 1A（人形机器人原型）以及舱外机动装置（EMU）宇航服。“这非常特别，”勒瓦瑟在谈到 EMU 时说，“据我所知，这是世界上首次，也可能是唯一一次公开展出完整飞行过的 EMU 设备。我知道美国国家航空航天局（NASA）的舱外活动办公室里有一套，但并未公开展出。”

NASA astronaut Chris Williams and curator Jennifer Levasseur view the only fully flown extravehicular mobility unit spacesuit on public display in “At Home in Space.” Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

NASA 宇航员克里斯·威廉姆斯（Chris Williams）和策展人詹妮弗·勒瓦瑟正在观看“太空之家”中唯一公开展出的完整飞行过的舱外机动装置宇航服。图片来源：NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

Unlike Apollo-era spacesuits sized to each astronaut, the EMU was designed to be reused, so its components can be swapped out to fit astronauts of different sizes. Introduced during the early years of the space shuttle program, the same EMU suits are still used on the International Space Station for US spacewalks. The museum’s example is only missing a functioning portable life support system (PLSS), as all the backpacks are still needed for use. So the suit on display only has a PLSS shell for now, according to Levasseur.

与阿波罗时代为每位宇航员量身定制的宇航服不同，EMU 被设计为可重复使用，因此其组件可以更换以适应不同体型的宇航员。这种宇航服在航天飞机计划早期推出，至今仍被用于国际空间站的美国太空行走任务。博物馆展出的这套装备仅缺少一个功能性的便携式生命支持系统（PLSS），因为所有的背包目前仍在使用中。据勒瓦瑟介绍，因此目前展出的宇航服仅包含一个 PLSS 外壳。

The gallery also features Guy Bluford’s and Sally Ride’s in-flight suits, the “shirt-sleeve” outfits the first African American and first US woman wore on the space shuttle (on separate missions). “Sally is notably missing her jacket, which was a late change to our plan. We were given a drawing of this, a 3D mockup of its display case, and our designers then put it in this way without the jacket on. And we thought, ‘Hey, that’s actually kind of a nice contrast. Let’s keep the jacket out,’” Levasseur told collectSPACE.

展厅还展出了盖伊·布鲁福德（Guy Bluford）和萨莉·赖德（Sally Ride）的飞行服，这是第一位非裔美国宇航员和第一位美国女性宇航员在航天飞机上（不同任务中）穿着的“便装”。“萨莉的夹克不见了，这是我们计划中的一个临时变动。我们收到了展示柜的 3D 模型图，设计师在布置时没有放上夹克。我们觉得，‘嘿，这其实形成了一种不错的对比。我们就把夹克拿掉吧，’”勒瓦瑟告诉 collectSPACE。

Flight clothes worn by the first African American astronaut, Guion “Guy” Bluford, and the first US woman, Sally Ride, on board the space shuttle, as on display in “At Home in Space.” Credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

第一位非裔美国宇航员盖伊·布鲁福德和第一位美国女性宇航员萨莉·赖德在航天飞机上穿着的飞行服，现于“太空之家”展出。图片来源：史密森尼国家航空航天博物馆

The gallery also includes recovered components from the Challenger and Columbia tragedies. It is only the second public display of fallen orbiter debris after a Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex exhibit that opened in Florida in 2015. “We wanted to honor the individuals who were lost during the shuttle program,” said Levasseur. “So we have an elevon hinge from Challenger that washed up on the beach a few years ago and a little wiring panel fragment from inside the payload bay. And then from Columbia we thought it was appropriate to help tell that story with a piece of RCC [reinforced carbon-carbon]. This is a T-panel from the starboard wing. We also have a CD [compact disc] on a long-term loan from David Brown’s family.”

展厅还包括从“挑战者号”和“哥伦比亚号”悲剧中回收的部件。这是继 2015 年佛罗里达州肯尼迪航天中心游客中心展览之后，第二次公开展出失事轨道器的残骸。“我们希望纪念在航天飞机计划中遇难的人们，”勒瓦瑟说，“我们展出了几年前被冲上海滩的‘挑战者号’升降副翼铰链，以及来自有效载荷舱内的一小块布线面板碎片。对于‘哥伦比亚号’，我们认为用一块增强碳-碳（RCC）材料来讲述那个故事是合适的。这是一块来自右翼的 T 型面板。我们还从大卫·布朗（David Brown）的家人那里长期借展了一张 CD（光盘）。”

Visitors can also walk through a full-size mock-up of the space station’s Destiny module, the US national laboratory on the station, and view its equipment on both sides, as well as above and below.