(Smithsonian via Kickstarter)

By DCist contributor Rachel Kaufman.

Just a day after launching a campaign to raise $500,000 to get Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit out of a storage room and on display, the Smithsonian has already raised nearly half that sum—$249,200 as of this afternoon.

Hundreds of people have pledged $11 to get a high-resolution picture of the suit that is “suit”-able for printing as a poster (blame the Smithsonian Department of Dad Jokes for that one); hundreds more forked over $20 for a moon-boot-print decal. Nine die-hard space fans gave $1000 for a behind-the-scenes tour of the Udvar-Hazy center, and 16 paid $2,500 to get a Smithsonian flag that has been to space on the shuttle Discovery (which itself is now parked at Udvar-Hazy). More than 3,500 people have contributed thus far.

So, like, shouldn’t the government be footing the bill for this? The Kickstarter campaign makes it clear that your tax dollars aren’t enough to pay for this but implied that if the campaign is not fully funded, this priceless space suit will fall apart, which sounds a bit like blackmail? Thankfully, a curator clarified in a Q&A on the Air and Space Museum’s website that the spacesuit is “currently stored in a state-of-the art facility with strict climate controls. We have determined that these storage conditions will keep the suit stable for many, many years. If the project is not funded, the suit will remain safe in its current storage.”

Courtesy of the Smithsonian via Kickstarter.