Sally’s Night Celebration
Friday, June 16
7:00PM - 9:30PM
McCarthy Center Forum
Framingham state University
2023 marks the 40th anniversary of Sally Ride’s historic STS-7 mission and becoming the first American woman in space.
To honor her and this special anniversary, we are partnering with the National Air and Space Museum and joining fellow Smithsonian Affiliates across the country to host an evening filled with FREE fun for learners of all ages! Please click here to register.
Come celebrate and show us how you #ShineLikeSally!
EVENT SCHEDULE:
7:00: Hands-on activities led by NASA Solar System Ambassadors, nostalgic 1980s trivia & puzzles, and official NASA giveaways
7:30-8:15: Keynote presentation by Dr. Margaret Weitekamp, Curator and Department Chair, Space History Department, National Air and Space Museum
8:30-9:30: Interactive Solar System Explorers program with McAuliffe Center staff
KEYNOTE PRESENTATION:
Space Craze: Understanding History and Fiction Using Artifacts
Margaret A. Weitekamp, Ph.D.
Chair and Curator, Department of Space History, Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC
If you are unable to join us in-person, please use this page to register to attend Dr. Margaret Weitekamp's keynote presentation remotely via Zoom at 7:30pm!
Join Dr. Margaret Weitekamp as she discusses her recent book, Space Craze: America’s Enduring Fascination with Real and Imagined Spaceflight (Smithsonian Books, 2022). Written based on Weitekamp’s experience working with the Museum’s collections of spaceflight memorabilia and space science fiction objects, Space Craze surveys the long history of spaceflight, from the formative stories told by Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, to the historic flights of John Glenn and the Apollo astronauts, through the Space Shuttle era to the present. How does material culture – things such as toys, pins, buttons, mugs, and mission patches – illuminate the story of spaceflight as a particularly American endeavor?
BIOGRAPHY:
Dr. Margaret Weitekamp serves as chair for the Space History Department at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, and curates the Museum's social and cultural history of spaceflight collection, more than 5,000 artifacts that include both space memorabilia and space science fiction objects. These everyday mementos of the space age—which include toys and games, medals and awards, buttons and pins, as well as comics and trading cards—complete the story about spaceflight told by the Museum's collection of space hardware and technologies. Her book, Space Craze: America’s Enduring Fascination with Real and Imagined Spaceflight (2022) is based on that work.
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With Matthew Shindell, she revised and expanded Spaceships: An Illustrated History of the Real and Imagined (2023). She is the author of numerous scholarly articles as well as Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America's First Women in Space Program, which won the Eugene M. Emme Award for Astronautical Literature from the American Astronautical Society. In addition, she wrote an award-winning children’s picture book Pluto’s Secret: An Icy World’s Tale of Discovery (2013), in collaboration with David DeVorkin, with illustrations by Diane Kidd.
Weitekamp earned a BA from the University of Pittsburgh and an MA and PhD in history from Cornell University. During her graduate work, she was a Mellon fellow in the humanities and 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.
NASA SOLAR SYSTEM AMBASSADORS:
David S. Ball: Test Your Knowledge About STS-7 and Dr. Sally Ride
Prizes for answering questions about spaceflight, Space Shuttle Challenger, and America's first woman in space!
Pat Monteith: Spinning Through the Solar System
Choose from one of two different activities to build and take home: a spinning solar system or a Mars Ingenuity Helicopter!
John Sheff: Pocket Solar System
Make a scale model of the distances between objects in our solar system! Learn about the many interesting features and objects in our solar neighborhood!
ABOUT SALLY RIDE:
Dr. Sally K. Ride lived her life with extraordinary energy, passion, curiosity, and joy. Whether in the classroom or on the tennis court, in the lab or on the launch pad—it was clear from the start that Sally would reach great heights.
June 18, 2023 is the 40th anniversary of one exciting episode of Sally’s extraordinary life—STS-7, the historic mission when she became the first American woman in space. Sally Ride was not the only woman to study and explore our universe. As we celebrate her legacy, we also celebrate the women and gender-expansive people who came before her and follow in her footsteps.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
Registration is required. This event is free, and attendees of all ages are welcome!
Parking is available in the Maynard Road, Salem End Road, and Maple Street Parking Lots. Once parked, follow Framingham State University’s signs and the McAuliffe Center’s yard signs to the McCarthy Center. The Forum is on the second floor of the McCarthy Center, Room 212.
This project received support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative Pool.