Washington families can chart a brand-new course on Saturday, November 14, 2026, when the National Air and Space Museum hosts Soar Together Family Day: Maps and Navigation at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The free family day explores how people map and navigate their world, from the earliest charts drawn by explorers to the instruments pilots and astronauts rely on today. Hands-on activities invite kids and grown-ups to think like navigators, read maps, and discover how finding your way has always been part of the adventure of flight and space travel.
The setting could hardly be better: the Udvar-Hazy Center’s vast hangars hold thousands of aviation and space artifacts, including the Space Shuttle Discovery and generations of aircraft that carried people across oceans, continents, and into orbit. Admission is always free, and the museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
For Washington-area families, it is a perfect November outing: a day of curiosity, teamwork, and wayfinding, surrounded by the machines that shrank the map of the world.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
