The Flight Deck

The idea of living and working in space has acted as inspiration for stories for thousands of years. Dr. Margaret Weitekamp is a curator and chair of the space history department at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. She joins host Sean Mobley to explore the many ways culture draws from the stars. The Museum of Flight is a proud Smithsonian Affiliate. Full shownotes and transcript: htt...

If someone’s murdered on the International Space Station, what happens? Dr. Saadia Pekkanen is the founding director of the Space Law, Data, and Policy Program at the University of Washington, and is one of the global experts on the rules and diplomacy of outer space policy. She joins host Sean Mobley answer a deceptively simple question: as humans extend our reach into outer space, how do we know...

Yeah, dreaming of a thriving community in space is all fine and dandy. But have we really thought this through? Kelly Weinersmith is a biologist and popular science writer. She co-authored the book A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? with her husband Zach Weinersmith. In this conversation with host Sean Mobley, she brings a critical...

The Mass Effect series set a new standard for science fiction storytelling. Part of its appeal was a grounding in real science. Mac Walters is the CEO of Worlds Untold, but before founding his own company he was a writer on Mass Effect, a lead writer on Mass Effect 2 and 3, creative director of Mass Effect: Andromeda, and project director for the Mass Effect Legendary Edition. He joined host Sean...

Space is trying to kill you. How can you make it feel like home? Sana Sharma is a co-founder and the Chief Design Officer for the Aurelia Institute, where she focuses on creating habitats in outer space that go beyond basic survival. She joins host Sean Mobley to design a cozy place in outer space. Full Shownotes https://tmof.click/4fPD9m8

Sandwiches hit different at zero gravity. While at NASA, Vickie Kloeris managed the food systems for the Space Shuttle and later the International Space Station. She joins host Sean Mobley to chat about the weirdness and wonderfulness of making a menu for astronauts. Full shownotes: https://blog.museumofflight.org/flightdeck/space-food-with-vickie-kloeris

Wendy Lawrence is a retired NASA astronaut and pilot for the United States Navy. She joined host Sean Mobley for a frank and honest conversation about resilience, finding community, and reflecting on her time in the Navy and at NASA through an LGBTQ+ lens. In Season 3 of The Flight Deck, we’re sharing stories of LGBTQ+ people in aerospace. Full shownotes at www.museumofflight.org/podcast

LGBTQ+ people have been part of aviation and space science for centuries. Today’s episode is a bit of a departure from our normal format. Special guest Joalda Morancy rejoins host Sean Mobley to spotlight 10 individuals in aerospace past and present who are part of the LGBTQ+ umbrella. This list of 10 people is not meant to be comprehensive. If you were making your own list, who would you include?...

Museums are places where history is presented and interpreted, and presenting and interpreting the stories of LGBTQ+ people in aerospace brings with it unique challenges for the people doing the interpreting. Isaac Fellman and Tony Pankuch, two thinkers in the museum and archives world whose focus is on LGBTQ+ stories, join host Sean Mobley to consider people like Sally Ride, Amelia Earhart, Josep...

Dr. Marques Redd and Mikael Owunna are Black, queer Pittsburgh-based multidisciplinary artists who weave indigenous African cosmic stories into their work. A recent film they directed, The Primordial House is an example of this, referencing everything from modern pictures of deep space phenomenon to the connections the Igbo people have had to the Sirius star system since ancient times to the celes...

Greg Sumner grew up fascinated by airplanes and managed to parlay that love of aviation into a career as a pilot, flying some of the most iconic aircraft out there for United Airlines. He also served as the co-chair of the National Gay Pilots Association, a worldwide organization dedicated to creating community for LGBTQ+ people across all aviation jobs, and fostering a more inclusive industry. He...

The history of the gay men who still make up an unusually large percentage of the flight attendant labor force is not well known. Associate Professor of History at Kansas State University Phil Tiemeyer covered this topic in his book “Plane Queer: Labor, Sexuality, and AIDS in the History of Male Flight Attendants.” While the book covers almost a century of history, Phil sat down for an interview t...

Author, astrophysicist and science communicator Joalda Morancy wrote their young readers book “Aliens: Join the Scientists Searching Space for Extraterrestrial Life” while they were still a college student at the University of Chicago in 2021. They joined our host Sean Mobley for conversation about science, finding their people, and the reasons genuine representation in STEM helps make our own pla...

There’s little about Dr. Margaret “Mom” Chung’s story that you can call ordinary. From her status as the first known Chinese American woman doctor, to her secret mission to recruit pilots for the American Volunteer Group in World War II, to the ways she intentionally transgressed and presented both masculinity and femininity in her life in order to gain access and acceptance, to the thousands of s...

Welcome to Season 3 of The Flight Deck! This season’s theme is LGBTQ+ aerospace history. We’ll be investigating the ways that LGBTQ+ people have been part of aviation and space exploration since the beginning, and also the ways the aerospace industry has shaped the LGBTQ+ community. We’ve got a fantastic lineup of conversations heading your way this season, and it’s starting off with X-15 historia...

What a century! We recently visited the National Museum of the Untied States Air Force to get a close-up look at the Century Series aircraft on display there (F-100, F-101, F-102, F-104, F-105, F-106 and F-107). As a delightful bonus to that trip, our Senior Curator Matthew Burchette got to interview Doug Lantry, Curator at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Not only that, but he...

If you live in a rural area and don’t have access to a hospital, what do you do in a medical emergency? That’s where Life Flight comes in. Life Flight and other organizations like it use helicopters to whisk passengers in hard-to-reach areas over mountains and bodies of water that would take cars hours to travel, in a matter of minutes. On top of that, the helos are equipped with life-saving equip...

Thousands of satellites are zooming over your head right now, orbiting Earth and beaming down research data, images, phone calls and even Internet access. Did you know that many of those satellites were made within a few miles of The Museum of Flight? Join Geoff Nunn, our Adjunct Curator for Space History, and our Senior Curator Matthew Burchette for a conversation about these small orbiting wonde...

Each year, Seafair brings a spectacular air show to the skies above Seattle. The jewel of the show is the annual performance by the Blue Angels, the United States Navy’s demonstration team. This episode features a conversation with some of the behind-the-scenes crew of the Blues, learning about the many people who support the team to keep the Blues in safe condition. Full show notes ➡️ https://tmo...

Welcome to Season 2 of The Flight Deck! From now on we’ll be presenting podcast episodes in themed seasons, letting us explore stories from aerospace in entirely new ways. This season is all about “Curator on the Loose!” The Museum of Flight’s hit webseries. With almost 4 million views, the show features our Senior Curator Matthew Burchette taking viewers into areas of the aviation industry they n...

In the conclusion to a two-part series about the mysterious DB Cooper, this episode picks up the story from its cliffhanger ending in Part I, with Museum of Flight Docent Mike Burns sharing the events in the aftermath of the hijacking, the aircraft involved in the search for Cooper, and the theories that persist even to this day about the true identity of the missing criminal. Full Shownotes -> ht...

This episode comes out on the brink of a major anniversary here in Seattle. 50 years ago tomorrow, November 24, on the eve of Thanksgiving, a man known only as DB Cooper boarded a plane in Portland headed for Seattle. What followed is a tale of danger, extortion, and hundreds of thousands of missing dollars - over a million in today's money. Host Sean Mobley sat down with Museum of Flight docent M...

If you’ve shopped in the Museum’s store, Lynda Eck may have helped you with your purchase. Before she started working here at the Museum, however, Lynda had a 35-year career flying with United on aircraft like the classic 747, first as a stewardess, then as a flight attendant. She joins host Sean Mobley for a conversation about her career chock full of stories from the friendly skies. Full show no...

What’s it like to drift from planet to planet, exploring the universe? In today’s episode of The Flight Deck, you get to do just that. Host Sean Mobley invites you to take a break from the hustle and bustle for a few minutes as he leads you through a game of Alone Among the Stars, a journaling game by Takuma Okada (@noroadhome) where you play an intergalactic explorer chronicling their adventures...

How does studying a giraffe help make a better space suit? Dr. Dava Newman is the current Director of the MIT Media Lab and served as a Deputy Administrator of NASA in the mid-2010s. She’s been with MIT’s School of Engineering since 1993, where she ponders questions like how giraffes avoid passing out lifting their little heads up to munch on some trees, and uses these findings to lead a team of i...