The space sciences collection includes objects ranging from engineering models, components, and prototypes to mockups and models representing the full range of scientific activities performed on space vehicles, including both suborbital and orbital satellites, probes, and landers, as well as missions flown into orbits around other celestial bodies, including the moon, other planets, the Sun, and the Earth’s Lagrangian points. Specific subject matter areas include but are not limited to astrophysics, biology, the earth sciences, geophysics, planetary science, and solar physics. Collections areas also include artifacts from the ground-based sciences that represent the intellectual and technical infrastructure within which the problems addressed by the space sciences are rationalized.
