The sky's the limit: "these ... works--ranging from the illustrative to the abstract--present a different view of NASA than the one in history books or news shows.".

• Position: Museums Today - National Aeronautics and Space Administration; NASA / ART: 50 Years of Exploration

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YOU DO NOT have to be a rocket scientist or an astronaut to work for NASA. Engineers, pilots, physicists, astrobiologists, and, yes, artists, too, have helped further the mission of the space agency. In 1962, NASA administrator James E. Webb invited a group of artists to illustrate and interpret the agency's missions and projects. Artists--participating in the NASA art program--many of them renowned, have been documenting the extraordinary adventure of space flight ever since. Granted special access to historic moments, they have offered their perspectives on what they have witnessed.

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"NASA | ART: 50 Years of Exploration" features works by artists as diverse as Annie Leibovitz, Alexander Calder, Nam June Paik, Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol, and William Wegman. The exhibition includes drawings, photographs, sculpture, and other art forms and media from the collections of NASA and the National Air and Space Museum. These more than 70 works--ranging from the illustrative to the abstract--present a different view of NASA than the one in history books or news shows.

Several of the artists have captured the faces and personalities of the men and women who have flown in space. Other members of the team--scientists, engineers, technicians, managers, and thousands of others who have made the space program possible--also are portrayed. Bunkers, gantries, radio dishes, and the towering Vehicle Assembly Building of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida attracted other program...