Episode 19: Star Trek and actual space with Margaret Weitekamp

Henry is currently a visiting scholar at the Library of Congress in Washington DC, where he had the chance to speak about space with Margaret Weitekamp, curator of Space History department or the Smithsonian Air and Space museum. She curates the museum’s social and cultural dimensions of spaceflight collection, which has more than 4,000 artifacts that include space memorabilia and space science fiction objects. We talked about the relationship of imaginaries of science fiction with those of space planning, and the benefits of displaying them side by side in the museum. We also discuss the link between the fandom of Star Trek and the dreams of space travel, we contextualize it within larger socio-cultural contexts, and also discuss the history of women in the space program.