Making Space for Commercial Spaceflight: Questioning Futures in a History Museum

The Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum is undertaking a complete renovation of its main visitor facility on the National Mall. As part of this renovation, the Museum’s staff is working to update and transform the content of its existing galleries, as well as add new galleries to address emerging developments in aviation and spaceflight. One such new gallery is dedicated to the evolving relationship between government space agencies and the commercial space sector. The Future of Spaceflight gallery is dedicated to the possible next steps, robotic or human, that might be taken by government and industry in the use and exploitation of space and its resources—from public-private partnerships to space tourism to commercial spaceports. This gallery is designed explicitly not to predict the future of spaceflight but to act as a forum that invites visitors to engage with a set of “enduring questions” about the who, what, and why of spaceflight.