Photos from this little-known NASA lab show the men and women who made space adventures reality

A new exhibition showcases the Langley Research Center

Langley Rendezvous and Docking Simulator (NASA/Langley Research Center)

Mortals became immortal for taming the skies and stars. But for every Chuck Yeager, John Glenn, or Sally Ride, there are innumerable unknowns whose research and experiments made the impossible dreams of test pilots and astronauts realities.

For the past 100 years, Langley Research Center has made groundbreaking advances in aeronautics, creating the technology which has made commercial flight viable and space travel possible. Its campus in Hampton, Virginia is where “human computer” Katherine Johnson calculated Alan Shepard’s rocket trip beyond the atmosphere, and where Neil Armstrong prepared for his moonwalk. Long overshadowed by the launchpad at Kennedy Space Center or the test facilities of Edwards Air Force Base, Langley is now the star of a photography exhibition at the Chrysler Museum of Art.

Research mathematician Katherine Johnson at her desk, 1962. (NASA/Langley research Center)

Science isn’t always picturesque, and the people at Langley’s greatest contributions have been necessary but not very sexy feats of engineering and math: Calculating flight trajectories; stitching together satellite imagery and devising lunar landing targets; developing the heat shields that allowed the Viking I and Curiosity rovers to safely set down on Mars; building orbital environmental monitoring systems; maximizing fuel efficiency while minimizing air resistance. It’s a place where important work gets done out of sight, but it’s work that eventually creates some striking visuals. Scale model tests in early Langley wind tunnels led to innovative airfoil designs that remain industry standard today. The center collaborated on the Bell X-1 jet, which broke the sound barrier and opened the door to hypersonic flight. Research into rocketry paved the way for Project Mercury, conducted at Langley by the newly created NASA. Images of an Atlas rocket riding flame and smoke heavenward, of Earth seen from the surface of the moon, of red Martian soil, wouldn’t exist without researchers and engineers toiling away in near obscurity.

But Langley and the people who have worked in its offices and wind tunnels for the past century are a little less obscure today, being given a showing in this selection of photos from the exhibition alongside photos of the center’s impact.

Picturing Innovation: The First 100 Years at NASA Langley runs through March 11, 2018 at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, VA.

X-15 begins climb after launch, 1961. (Dean Conger/National Geographic/NASA)

(left) Aircraft Engineering Research Conference at Langley’s Full Scale Tunnel; Orville Wright, Charles Lindbergh and Howard Hughes in attendance, 1934. (NASA) | (right) An experimental Douglas D-558–2 Skyrocket is being studied for roll behavior as it glides to an unpowered landing. (NASA Langley Research Center)

The Bell X-1 in flight, shock wave pattern visible in the exhaust plume, 1947. (Lt. Robert A. Hoover/NASA/USAF)

(left) Physicist Pearl Young, first female technical employee, in the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory’s Flight Instrumentation Facility, March 29th, 1929. (NASA) | (right) A researcher inspects a model Gemini spacecraft in the 11-inch Hypersonic Tunnel, 1962. (NASA Langley Research Center)

John Glenn, first American to orbit the Earth, 1962. (NASA)

John Glenn runs through a training exercise in the Mercury Procedures Trainer at the Space Task Group at Langley, 1960. (NASA Langley Research Center)

(left) A technician checks the Mercury full-scale capsule model prior to testing, 1959. | (right) Astronaut Charles Conrad Jr. climbs from the Gemini-11 spacecraft minutes after splashdown, September 15th, 1966. (NASA)

Composite of photographs taken by Lunar Orbiter 1, 1966. (NASA)

An astronaut uses the Lunar Lander Research Facility to practice walking in a low-gravitational setting similar to the moon, 1965. (NASA Langley Research Center)

(left) The Viking I mission delivered an orbiter and lander to Mars. | (right) Scientists at the Langley Research Center stand in front of the aeroshell that protected the Viking Lander I during its entry into the Martian atmosphere in 1976. (NASA)

(left) Mary Jackson, first black woman to become a NASA engineer. (NASA Langley Research Center) | (right) Sunset at the Viking Lander 1 site. (NASA/JPL)

Viking 1 launches on a Titan/Centaur rocket from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, August 20th, 1975. (NASA)