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Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, March 4, 2019 / 3:30 PM, Building 8 Auditorium

Photo of Margaret Weitekamp

Margaret Weitekamp

"To Spacedock and Back: Putting the Enterprise Model on Exhibit at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum"

ABSTRACT -- Why does the premier museum of actual aviation and spaceflight have a model of an imaginary spacecraft in its main hall? Come hear Dr. Margaret Weitekamp, a curator in the Space History department at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, talk about the 11-foot studio model used in filming the original Star Trek television series (1966-1969). This iconic artifact of American popular culture underwent an extensive conservation effort between 2014 and its installation in the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall in 2016. As the Museum is undergoing its own restoration and transformation project, Dr. Weitekamp will recap the model's conservation and talk about the role of imagination in inspiring the next generation of engineers and scientists.

SPEAKER -- Margaret A. Weitekamp, Ph.D. is a curator in the Space History department at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. She oversees over 4500 individual pieces of space memorabilia and space science fiction objects, including the 11-foot studio model of the original Star Trek starship Enterprise. The Social and Cultural Dimensions of Spaceflight collection includes toys and games, clothing and stamps, medals and awards, and buttons and pins, as well as comics and trading cards. These everyday mementos of the space age complete the story about spaceflight told by the Museum's collection of space hardware and technologies. In addition to her work on the Museum's Moving Beyond Earth exhibit that opened in 2008, she is the lead space history curator for the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall, which opened in July 2016.

Her book Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America's First Women in Space Program won the Eugene M. Emme Award for Astronautical Literature from the American Astronautical Society. Her published articles include topics such as Apollo 11 commemorative medals, Lt. Uhura, and Space Shuttle toys. Pluto's Secret: An Icy World's Tale of Discovery, her book for young readers, was co-written with David DeVorkin and illustrated by Diane Kidd. She is working on a history of space memorabilia.

She earned a B.A. at the University of Pittsburgh and a Ph.D. at Cornell University. During her graduate work, she was a Mellon fellow in the humanities and also spent a year in residence at the NASA Headquarters History Office in Washington, D.C. as the American Historical Association/NASA Aerospace History Fellow. Before joining the Smithsonian, Weitekamp taught in the Women's Studies Program at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. She lives in Burke, Virginia with her husband, Kevin Days, and their three children.

Engineering Colloquium home page: https://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov