The National Air and Space Museum will temporarily close in March

New galleries are under construction and will reopen in Fall 2022.

I want to let you know that we are moving closer to completing an extensive, multi-year renovation of the National Air and Space Museum. The museum’s flagship building will temporarily close to the public March 28, 2022, until fall 2022 to complete work on the first new galleries in the west wing of the building. The museum will continue doing virtual events during the closure and has robust online materials about the collections available at airandspace.si.edu.

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, the museum’s companion facility in Chantilly, Virginia, will operate as usual with regular visiting hours and events.

This closure is needed to ensure the continued safety of visitors. To ultimately provide the best visitor experience, the museum’s new west-end galleries will open together on the same date to be announced next year.

While the museum on the National Mall is closed, some of its world-class collection and items related to air and space content can be found in other Smithsonian museums, including several meteorites at the National Museum of Natural History, the Tomahawk cruise missile at the National Museum of the American Indian, the PT-13D Stearman Kaydet aircraft at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Huey helicopter at the National Museum of American History and the Goddard 1935 Series-A Rocket in the new “FUTURES” exhibition at the Arts and Industries Building. The museum is also working on additional ways to share its content at other Smithsonian locations on the National Mall during the closure.

The exhibitions reopening in the new west-wing galleries next fall include “America by Air,” “The Wright Brothers & the Invention of the Aerial Age,” “Nation of Speed,” “Thomas W. Haas We All Fly,” “One World Connected,” “Kenneth C. Griffin Exploring the Planets Gallery,” “Destination Moon” and “Early Flight.” The museum store and Albert Einstein Planetarium also will reopen in the fall.

The second half of the project will begin at the end of March 2022 with the deinstallation of the east wing of the building. The completion of that wing, the culmination of the project and the opening of the remaining exhibitions are currently scheduled for 2025. Learn more about the complete transformation of the museum’s building here.

Thank you for your patience during this temporary closure. My special thanks to those who are working to transform the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum into an experience that will serve future generations as they explore the wonder of flight.

Sincerely,

Lonnie Bunch
Secretary

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