All Stories

Museum curator Samantha Thompson explores the cool science that goes along with the fun fiction in the 2022 film Lightyear.

Speed on the ground and in the air may have more connections than you think.

What Kenneth Arnold saw while flying past Mt. Rainier on June 24, 1947, remains a mystery. He spent the rest of his life trying to explain it and inadvertently added the words “flying saucer” to the vocabularies of millions of people around the world. Learn about the story behind it.

Meet the woman who is entrusted with preserving the icons of the Star Wars universe.

Happy Pride Month! Today, we’re bringing you a special installment of QueerSpace, our limited series featuring stories and people at the intersection of aviation, space, and LGBTQ+ history and culture. Seven years ago this month, the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v Hodges that same-sex couples have the fundamental right to marry under the constitution. If you dig into an amicus brief for Obergefell, you’ll see mention of another case, Norton v Macy. This case set the first precedent ruling that the federal government can’t fire an employee for being gay. We talk a lot about pilots and astronauts who’ve made history, but today’s aerospace trailblazer was a humble NASA civil servant and petitioner named Clifford Norton.

The original Top Gun features some of the most memorable naval aviation scenes in film history, due in large part to the cooperation of the U.S. Navy with the filming of the movie. Although some may presume this is the first time a major Hollywood film joined forces with U.S. naval aviation, that honor belongs to the 1931 film Dirigible.

When researching QueerSpace, we repeatedly saw creators blending themes of space and themes of queerness in their art. Many of these artists use their art to envision new futures. Futurist thinking uses the experience of the past and present to contextualize and reimagine what the future could be, often creating a future that’s more equitable and radically different than what we have now.

Despite being known as a leader in terms of gender and racial integration, it wasn't until 2017 that the first openly gay characters were introduced in a Star Trek television show. We talk to curator Margaret Weitekamp about Star Trek's history with LGBTQ+ stories and characters.

In science fiction, the possibilities are seemingly endless. Authors can literally rewrite a world in terms of gender, sexuality, and culture, making something that is more inclusive and often more interesting. We talk to bookseller Hannah Oliver Depp of Loyalty Books about the history of queer worldbuilding in sci-fi literature.

The first episode of our "QueerSpace" limited series spotlights the history and community built by male flight attendants.