The Stardust capsule will go on display Wednesday to join other firsts of flight at the museum, including Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis and the Apollo 11 Command Module.
The capsule launched in 1999 and took seven years to reach Comet Wild 2, capture dust and bring it back to Earth. The roundtrip journey of 3 billion miles marked the first U.S. robotic sample to be returned from beyond the moon.
The Stardust capsule goes to the Smithsonian on NASA's 50th anniversary. Meanwhile, the capsule's mother ship remains in permanent orbit around the sun, awaiting use on a future mission.
