A new exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum is a dream for space exploration fans.  The new “Moving Beyond Earth” exhibit features a 12-foot tall space shuttle model, parts of the Hubble Space Telescope and a model of the Ares launch vehicle. But there’s something even more exciting at the exhibit for LED lighting fans like me – LED lights are replacing the 30-year-old mercury vapor work lights!

Cree’s LR24 recessed LED lights are lighting up the gallery for about eight hours each day so museum staff can clean the gallery and take care of other maintenance when the exhibit isn’t open.

The work lights will be on for about eight hours a day. And since the museum’s new LED lights are designed to last 50,000 hours, they could last 17 years if the lights are on eight hours a day, seven days a week!

You can read all about the installation and some more details about the benefits of having the LED lights at the Smithsonian here.

So if you go to the exhibit, look up at the 20-foot high ceilings and take note of those square lights (they’ll likely be turned off, unless you get a job working at the Smithsonian after hours) and smile to yourself because now you know yet another place that has joined the LED Lighting Revolution.