IT BURNED FOR A TOTAL OF OUST 192.6 SECONDS during four static tests in 1963, each time producing 1.5 million pounds of thrust. And although this particular Rocketdyne F-l engine never left Earth, it helped make possible the Saturn Ⅴ launch that would carry astronauts to the moon. The engine, donated by Rocketdyne to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in 1970, was one of the original artifacts in the Apollo to the Moon gallery when the Museum opened in 1976. "The gallery was built right after the Apollo program," says curator Michael Neufeld, "and it was designed with the assumption that the public understood the program, that they'd just experienced it." But now almost 50 years have passed, and audiences have changed. "We have to create an exhibit that explains why we went to the moon, and what came out of that exploration," says Neufeld, "and design it for a population that didn't experience it personally." The new Destination Moon gallery, slated to open in 2022, will place the lunar missions within their broader historical, cultural, and political context.
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