“Everyone knows the famous story about sending the suit to the dry cleaners – that was at the time was the best and standard option for conservation of costume materials and textiles”.
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The suit was on display until 2006 at the Air and Space Museum, when it was removed from display allow further study, as said by Nick Partridge, The museum’s public affairs specialist. It is kept in a controlled environment, but the museum hopes to create an exhibit that will protect and publicly display the suit for the 50th anniversary of the Moon walk.
The spacesuit has been kept in storage since past 13 years and has been displayed.
The Kickstarter campaign will run until August 19th, at which point if they’ve reached their half-million dollar goal, the team at the Smithsonian will begin the conservation, scanning and preservation process. It will later be transferred to the museum’s Destination Moon exhibit, set to open in 2021.
“The complete suits aren’t on display – they’re not even in this building”. We are enormous admirers of the Smithsonian, and we’re thrilled at the opportunity to collaborate with them and to invite new audiences to be a part of their work.
“Reboot the Suit” rewards include a mission patch designed by artist Michael Okuda and a limited edition poster.
The Smithsonian receives federal funding, but only for its “core” functions, so it makes sense to turn to crowdfunding for these sorts of special projects.
This is the first of several planned Kickstarter-funded campaigns for the institution, as reported by Yoonhyung Lee, the Smithsonian’s director of digital media philanthropy. The suit will become the centerpiece of a new gallery, planned for 2020. Astronaut Neil Armstrong, commander, took this picture with a 70mm Hasselblad lunar surface camera. Technology used for conserving spacesuits has advanced quite a bit since it was conserved by dry cleaning when the museum first received the spacesuit from NASA in the late 1960s.
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In the seven year project that just started with the crowdfunding effort #RebootTheSuit, the great aim is to raise $1.5 billion to fund a great many other projects. Like any other Kickstarter campaign though, Reboot the Suit must meet its $500,000 goal within 30 days or none of the supporters will be charged. SlashGear’s reporting on crowdfunded projects should in no way be seen as an endorsement, unless specifically stated, and we recommend closely examining the terms and conditions to understand your individual rights as a backer before making a pledge.
