You so much for being with us. The individual who runs this facility, the most Popular Museum in the smithsonian. Can i put in a plug . Absolutely. At 8 30 tonight were going to have an Opening Ceremony for our new exhibit, the boeing milestones of flight hall and its where where we are now open to the public and well stay open all night so if you havent got anything else to do, even if you do, come down, the weather is clearing here, were going to do it outside and have a grand time. And ill put a plug for cspan 3 American History tv because were carrying it live. Thanks for being with us. Well show you around this terrific facility, this museum and some of the artifacts, oneofakind items only here at the air and space museum. Behind me you see the wright flier, the worlds first airplane. On the morning of december 17, 1903 at 10 35 a. M. Orville wright at the controls takes flight in 120 feet. Thats the first time a man has entered the air in a fly magazine. At the end of four flight
Prizewinning flight, but it was the recordbreaking flight. And so they went to the trouble to reinstall the dented engine nozzle on it. Our next stop will be sky lab, and were going to look at that because it is one of the original artifacts on display here since before this Museum Opened. Sky lab is so large, it was brought into the museum before the building was closed out. Now im standing in front of a model of sky lab thats as tall as i am but the real sky lab orbital work station behind me absolutely dwarfs the model and me. It reaches from the floor up into the sky lights of this building, two stories tall. Sky lab was the United States first space station, placed in orbit in 1973 and in 1973 and 74, three different nasa astronaut crews spent time aboard it. Three men at a time, one group was there for one month. Another group for two months, and the third group for three months. The whole point of the sky lab missions was to get some experience in living and working in space. Wh