Historian Curates the Cosmos—Both Fact and (Science) Fiction

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By Joe Wilensky

For Smithsonian curator Margaret Weitekamp, PhD ’01, it’s not a contradiction for a model of an Apollo capsule to share gallery space with the starship Enterprise. In fact, it’s kind of the point.

Weitekamp is chair of the space history department at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

In her office on one of the facility’s upper floors, her desk and bookcases are stacked with tomes on spaceflight, astronaut autobiographies, and coffee-table volumes on rockets and spacecraft. The walls are decorated with framed photos of Earth as viewed from space.

But there are also keepsakes from another type of space travel—the imagined kind—such as “Star Trek” and Star Wars collectibles, models, and souvenirs that reflect her longtime love (and academic study) of science fiction.

“It’s a recurring theme in American culture, this fascination with space exploration; it’s persistent, but constantly evolving,” says Weitekamp, whose most recent book is The Space Craze: America’s Enduring Fascination with Real and Imagined Spaceflight. “It’s a cultural force for how we understand ourselves and what we project about what might be possible.”

The museum, which opened on the Mall to great fanfare during the Bicentennial summer of 1976, is marking its 50th anniversary in 2026. It remains one of D.C.’s—and the nation’s—most popular, seeing about four million visitors each year.

It’s a recurring theme in American culture, this fascination with space exploration; it’s persistent, but constantly evolving.

Among its iconic holdings are the original 1903 Wright Flyer, Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis monoplane, Chuck Yeager’s Bell X-1, and John Glenn’s Mercury Friendship 7 spacecraft. There's even a lunar rock sample, brought back by the crew of Apollo 17, that visitors can touch.

Weitekamp curates the museum’s holdings on the social and cultural history of spaceflight: more than 5,000 objects and specimens, many of which are real-world space program artifacts and memorabilia, like medals and mission patches.

Among the museum’s iconic holdings are the original 1903 Wright Flyer, Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis, Chuck Yeager’s Bell X-1, and John Glenn’s Friendship 7.

But the collection also boasts a wealth of science fiction ephemera, such as the 11-foot model of the Enterprise used in the opening shots of the original 1960s “Star Trek” TV show; Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon toys from the 1930s; cookie jars shaped like Mercury capsules; an Atari “Asteroids” video game cartridge; comic books and graphic novels; and a Buzz Lightyear action figure.

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“It’s fun to walk through the galleries,” she says, “and watch people experiencing things that you’ve taken years to put together.”

As a child visiting Florida, Weitekamp got to witness the June 1983 launch of the space shuttle Challenger—a historic event that made Sally Ride the first American woman to fly in space.

After undergrad at the University of Pittsburgh, Weitekamp earned her doctorate in history on the Hill; her dissertation became her first book, Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America’s First Women in Space Program.

(An image of the titular ship from “Star Trek: Voyager” graced the cover of the course packet.)

Weitekamp taught women’s studies at Hobart and William Smith in Geneva, NY, for several years before joining Air and Space as its curator of popular culture.

Her role has sometimes required unexpected skills: she once had to attend hours of meetings to figure out the most viable way to bring a 14,000-pound space shuttle engine into a gallery without cracking the floor.

As a child visiting Florida, Weitekamp got to witness the June 1983 launch of the space shuttle Challenger—a historic event that made Sally Ride the first American woman to fly in space.

For nearly a decade, the museum has been undergoing renovations of its 20 supersized galleries, IMAX theater, planetarium, exterior, and entrances, all while remaining open to the public.

Almost all the work will be finished by July, in time to celebrate not only the museum’s 50th birthday, but the nation’s 250th.

Weitekamp served on the design team that focused on the concourses—the common areas that tie the visitor experience together.

“We’ve got quotes from figures like Sally Ride in the floor,” she says. “You walk downstairs, and someone’s taking a picture of their feet next to a quote that they particularly like.”

Top: Weitekamp in the museum's main atrium. (Joe Wilensky / Cornell University)

Published June 11, 2026

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