The newly reopened halls at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum present some of the grandest artifacts in aeronautics and space travel, including a reproduction of the astromech R2-D2 built and loaned by Adam Savage.
This model of the lovable little robot from the Star Wars franchise, displayed in the “Futures in Space” gallery, was built by Adam Savage, of TV’s “MythBusters.” “But before he had that media career, he was a props guy and he worked on the R2-D2 prop for Lucasfilm during the prequel movies,” says curator Matthew Shindell. “While he was doing that, he took a bunch of measurements of R2-D2, had his own reference material and decided to build his own R2-D2.” It joins a growing number of artifacts from the entertainment world at the museum, such as Spock’s ear tips and a model of the starship Enterprise from “Star Trek.” When it comes to placing humans’ relationship with space, Shindell says, “nothing articulates that more, at least in the minds of the public, than science fiction. It also has inspired a lot of people to think about going into careers in aerospace.”
