Pilot. Astronaut. Engineer. Mechanic. Seamstress. Mathematician.
These are just a few of the careers you can hold in aviation and space. Join us this month as we explore all the ways you can work in air and space.
Note: This page shares programs, blog posts, videos, and podcast episodes related to careers in aviation and space. If you're looking specifically for opportunities at the National Air and Space Museum, please visit our Get Involved page to find out more about jobs, fellowships, internships, and our Explainers Program.
New Programs
Taking on Challenges with Intention: Making History in the Lockheed U-2
Hear from Col. Merryl Tengesdal (Ret.), the first Black woman to pilot the U-2, about how she overcame obstacles to make history.
Astronomy Careers: More Than Meets the Eye
We traveled to the Green Bank Observatory, home to the largest fully steerable radio telescope. Join us as we get up close and personal with the telescope and meet the people who keep it listening to the far corners of the universe.
Jacqueline Cochrane: Pilot, Leader, Myth
Jacqueline Cochran was one of the most outstanding women of the 20th century. She won speed records and air races in the 1930s, led the Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II, ran for Congress and broke the speed of sound in the 1950s, and held the title of fastest woman in the world in the 1960s.
Soar Together Family Day: Curious Careers in Air and Space
Discover and explore jobs and careers that you might not associate with aviation and space. What you learn may surprise you!
Suit Up: From the SR-71 Blackbird to the Space Shuttle
Sharon Caples McDougle joined the US Air Force in 1982, where she specialized in working with pressure suits for the SR-71 and U-2 missions. She fitted suits for individual pilots and suited them up for training flights and missions. In 1990 she transferred her skills to NASA where she was the first Black woman to serve as a spacesuit technician, crew chief, and manager of the Space Shuttle Crew Escape Equipment Processing department.
Exploring the Moon and Mars: Learning to Work and Live in Space
Lecture: May 24 from 8-9 pm, Online and Onsite at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC
Join Jacob Bleacher, NASA’s chief exploration scientist, to hear how NASA is preparing for the next decades of epic lunar science and exploration.
Pilot. Astronaut. Engineer. Mechanic. Seamstress. Mathematician.
These are just a few of the careers you can hold in aviation and space. Join us this month as we explore all the ways you can work in air and space.
Note: This page shares programs, blog posts, videos, and podcast episodes related to careers in aviation and space. If you're looking specifically for opportunities at the National Air and Space Museum, please visit our Get Involved page to find out more about jobs, fellowships, internships, and our Explainers Program.
New Programs
Taking on Challenges with Intention: Making History in the Lockheed U-2
Hear from Col. Merryl Tengesdal (Ret.), the first Black woman to pilot the U-2, about how she overcame obstacles to make history.
Astronomy Careers: More Than Meets the Eye
We traveled to the Green Bank Observatory, home to the largest fully steerable radio telescope. Join us as we get up close and personal with the telescope and meet the people who keep it listening to the far corners of the universe.
Jacqueline Cochrane: Pilot, Leader, Myth
Jacqueline Cochran was one of the most outstanding women of the 20th century. She won speed records and air races in the 1930s, led the Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II, ran for Congress and broke the speed of sound in the 1950s, and held the title of fastest woman in the world in the 1960s.
Soar Together Family Day: Curious Careers in Air and Space
Discover and explore jobs and careers that you might not associate with aviation and space. What you learn may surprise you!
Suit Up: From the SR-71 Blackbird to the Space Shuttle
Sharon Caples McDougle joined the US Air Force in 1982, where she specialized in working with pressure suits for the SR-71 and U-2 missions. She fitted suits for individual pilots and suited them up for training flights and missions. In 1990 she transferred her skills to NASA where she was the first Black woman to serve as a spacesuit technician, crew chief, and manager of the Space Shuttle Crew Escape Equipment Processing department.
Exploring the Moon and Mars: Learning to Work and Live in Space
Lecture: May 24 from 8-9 pm, Online and Onsite at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC
Join Jacob Bleacher, NASA’s chief exploration scientist, to hear how NASA is preparing for the next decades of epic lunar science and exploration.
What are your interests? Do you like to cook or sew? How about take pictures, or swim? No matter what your interests, there is a job for you in STEM. Follow along as we look at the diverse jobs you could one day have.
My Path
In this video series, leaders in a variety of industries talk about their careers and give advice.
Fighting to Work
This section highlights people who went to court to fight for their rights to pursue certain jobs. Discover their stories.
Flight attendants were one of the first groups to file a case under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made biased hiring practices illegal.
A highly qualified woman, top of her training class didn't understand why she wasn't being hired as a flight attendant, until an instructor told her it was because she was Black. The lawsuit that followed opened the door to Black women being hired.
Marlon D. Green fought and won the right to fly as a pilot by a major United States airline. His successful lawsuit paved the way for the hiring of David Harris by American Airlines as the first Black American airline pilot, as well as his own hiring by Continental Airlines soon afterwards.
Unusual Jobs in Air and Space
Still looking for more ways you can use your unique skills in air and space. Check out these career paths!
Last Month's Theme
Rockets have been around for hundreds of years since their invention in China around the year 1100.
The 1900s saw a technological explosion of new rocket-propulsion systems, using both solid and liquid propellants. Within a couple of decades, rockets and missiles had begun to alter the course of the twentieth-century—and beyond.
Explore the history of rockets with us.