S M I T H S O N I A N   I N S T I T U T I O N
N A T I O N A L   A I R   &   S P A C E   M U S E U M

Washington D.C.

If you blast off into the Heavens above, space fashion dictates that you must have a spacesuit. Want to be the center of attention? Arrive at the space party without your suit and you'll provide unforgettable horrors to your crewmates as they watch you die a quick, painful death.

Ahhh, the Hubble Space Telescope, the largest telescope in Earth orbit. Space telescopes are in an excellent position to take extremely clear and sharp pictures because they reside outside the Earth's atmosphere. Well, that assumes the telescope's mirror isn't flawed. Oops, NASA launched the Hubble in 1990 with a bad mirror. They eventually fix the problem four years later in 1994. Since then, the Hubble has been blowing our collective minds with spectacular images. As of today, despite the scientific importance of the telescope and all that it has contributed to our understanding of the universe, NASA has decided to let it slowly decay and die. Nooooo! Say it ain't so NASA!

I hope this model of the Hubble Space Telescope isn't completely accurate. If it is, I'd have to say they must have cut some pretty serious corners in its construction. Maybe that's why its optics were so screwed up?

The last exhibit to share is this cool display of the International Space Station. Heck, it's even interactive. VIDEOS: Here's a video (2.0 MB) of the proposed space station. Here's a video (3.9 MB) of me moving it around in 3-axis of rotation.