All Stories

The prototype for the popular Women of NASA LEGO® set joined the Museum’s collection last week, helping tell the story of how Americans are inspired by groundbreakers in aerospace.

The Museum’s She Can STEM summer camp is aimed at introducing aviation to 60 underrepresented middle school girls in the DC metro area.

In honor of the 75^th anniversary of the WASP founding in August 1943, we are excited to bring you some original, newly digitized images from the National Archives. 

It took a certain amount of pure grit to be a pilot in the early days of aviation – and even more for the women who had to defy convention just to get up in the air.

Seventy-five years ago, on August 5, 1943, a remarkable group of women stepped into roles as part of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Their story is one of courage, and their legacy is crucial to understanding the role of women as aviators within the United States Military.

Pilot Katherine Stinson flipped the conventions of her era on their head--literally and figuratively--when she became the first female pilot to fly the loop on July 18, 1915.

A new National Air and Space Museum Archives collection documents the story of Helen James, a member of the United States Air Force who was arrested and discharged as part of a campaign to remove LGBTQ people from government employment in the 1950s.

On the 35th anniversary of Sally Ride's historic trip to space, a look at other groundbreaking women in aerospace.

While Bessie Coleman never realized her dream of opening a flight school for African American pilots, her legacy as the first African American woman to earn a pilot’s license has impacted and inspired flight students for decades.

How the patches on Sally Ride’s flight jacket help tell her groundbreaking story of spaceflight.