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The White Stuff: Air and Space Museum Stays Open
By Alex Canizares
Special to space.com
posted: 05:57 pm ET
26 January 2000
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white_stuff_000126,html WASHINGTON (States News Service) -- Despite a blizzard that brought Washington to a standstill and shut down the federal government this week, the keeper of the nation's space treasures -- the National Air and Space Museum -- stayed open. While bitter winds and a foot of snow forced most public servants to stay home and kept all other Smithsonian museums, including the National Zoo, shuttered on Wednesday, it was business as usual at the most-visited museum in the world. "Only in the most severe weather conditions do we close down," said Air and Space spokesman Walton Ferrell. "Its just a matter of pride for us. People will come here under almost any circumstance." The museum counted more than 2,200 visitors by early afternoon Wednesday. It usually welcomes 8,000 to 15,000 tourists a day. Only the museum's IMAX theater, planetarium and shops were closed for the day. All exhibitions stayed open. The museum, which also was the only Smithsonian site open Tuesday when the winter storm began, was on skeleton staffing Wednesday with just 30 workers compared to the normal 70. Some employees were asked to work extra shifts to compensate for being stranded in traffic or at home. With the exception of Christmas Day, the museum is open every day of the year and refuses to close its doors -- except in the direst of circumstances. One of those times came in early 1996 when a deadlocked Congress refused to pass the federal budget, shutting down the government. At the time, all national museums locked their doors for several weeks until the budget was passed. But even then, Ferrell said, "we did that quite reluctantly."
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