Projects underway for NASM transformation project in Washington, DC

[Elbee]

davegee

At the risk of repeating myself, simply OUTSTANDING.

Best. LB

[davegee]

Thanks, Elbee!!

cheers,

davegee

[jetfool]

Beautiful Hope to see it in the museum someday.

[davegee]

Beautiful Hope to see it in the museum someday.

Thanks. It will get installed in 2025 or 2026 and should be on display for the next 25 years after that. So, I hope you get a chance to see the museum again after this total museum redo that is about 8 years in the completion. I'll probably fly out there to help out with the installation of the models when the time comes.

Cheers

Dave

[davegee]

As an update to the conclusion of the "last piece of the puzzle", the TDRS/Booster model, we drove up to Billings for some shopping and dropped off the model at the FedEx facility at the Billings airport on Monday February 5. We had UPS pack it, but since I get a considerable airline employee discount with FedEx, it was well worth the time and expense of going to Billings and have FedEx overnight it to Washington, DC. They did their job fantastically, and it was in the hands of the proper people on Tuesday February 6. It was briefly inspected for any damage, and it looks like it arrived without incident or any damage.

So, all these projects I did for the NASM, the P-51 Mustang III, the Me-163 Komet, the 15 1/72nd scale B-17G models, the Discovery Space Shuttle, and now the TDRS/Booster model that will go inside the cargo bay of the shuttle, are now "staged" in place for when the time comes to install them in the various display galleries. I'm very much looking forward to that, it was a long year getting all these projects completed. Now, we wait. It probably will be at least a year before the physical galleries have been constructed and finished that we will be ready to install all these models. I'll report back on this thread as things progress to seeing them on display. I hope to get some pictures of all of them and post here, in time. Thanks to all who have visited this thread and especially to those who have commented or complimented the work I have been busy doing.

I'll be happy to respond to any comments in the meantime as we countdown the weeks and months to where these models will take the stage on display.

Cheers

Davegee

[Elbee]

davegee, as will I and per usual, nicely done, Sir. Best, LB

[davegee]

Among the other projects listed above that are in a queue to be installed in the revitalized NASM building in the next year or two, I have been working on modifying one of my models, a satellite called DMSP 1 (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program 1) full-size satellite model. This full size 10-sided replica, only about 24 inches tall and diameter, was launched in 1962 to spy on then-Soviet targets or at least give important satellite images of the weather around the world under its path. It actually had an important support role in the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, where we almost went to nuclear war against the Soviets over the placement of missiles in Cuba aimed at the USA. I was in elementary school then and it was Scary!

The satellite was instrumental in giving the go-ahead for reconnaisance fighters to launch from bases in Florida and take super closeup pictures as they screamed low over the missile sites in Cuba, gathering photographic evidence. Once they returned safely, the films were developed and sent to Presidant Kennedy and then US ambassador Adlai Stevenson presented the UN body with the evidence. The Russians backed down, and a possible nuclear war was averted.

This model was an on-the-floor display that rotated on a stand (as it did in space) with other spy satellite artifacts for several years until they were all removed to make room for the total makeover of the whole museum. My model was retasked to be a hanging display in one of the new galleries, which will be installed in the next few months in its new location. I will probably fly out to see it put in place. It will be suspended from three points and hang sideways as it flew in space. Although you can't see the bottom of the satellite from the picture below, I built a scale-looking camera like they used to take pictures of targets and weather, and then were downloaded to the USA for development and distribution. This recent photo was taken in a part of the museum where they reconfigured it to a 3-point hanging display. Interestingly, this project in 1962 was of the highest classification of top secrecy until it was declassified in 1999. Up to that point, its very existence was denied to inquiring organizations or individuals.

The large shuttle model and TDRS satellite inside are scheduled to be installed in its new home in May 2026, just a couple months before the re-opening of the entire museum on July 4, 2026. That will mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of the NASM on the National Mall in 1976, and the 250th anniversary of our Country.