NASA Space and Rocket Center

The last part of my trip was a visit to the NASA Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. With previous knowledge combined with the perspective gained from my interviews, I entered the museum with a few questions in mind: 

1. How does NASA’s intentional inclusion of women and racial minorities plays out in how they tell their history at the museum?
2. How financially accessible is the museum? Who’s the museum’s target audience? 
3. Who visits the museum? 

History of science often leaves with me more questions than answers. 

Both Mrs. Bettina and Mrs. Hawkins highlighted NASA intentional focus on hiring more women and racial minorities. While this is super important, in the museum I hoped to see that the Hidden Figures “movement” had translated into a history that intentionally focused on including the narratives and history of women and racial minorities. I was disappointed but not shocked to see that the history told in the NASA Space and Rocket Center is white male-dominated. While the face and works of people of colored were sprinkled throughout the museum, it was clear that Hidden Figures was a “movement” that had passed. My disappointment soon turned into large questions of “why?” and “how”. Why weren’t these narratives included? And How do we, as historians of science, work for the inclusion of these narratives, not just on the “big screen” but in everyday life? Along with these questions came another question of “how to tell stories that haven’t yet been discovered?” 

The second question I entered the museum with was How financially accessible is the museum? The museum charges $25 for adults and $17 for children ages five to twelve for admission into the museum. The museum was a wonderful experience but coming from a low-income family, my mother would not have been able to afford for my family to attend the museum. What does this mean for who the museum’s target audience is? Along with the general admission to the museum, I got to take a look at some of the space camps offered by NASA and the price for a week-long camp is upwards of $1,000. This adds to the lack of accessibility for low-income families and children to NASA’s experiences. 

This inaccessibility leads me to my final question of “who visits the museum?”. During my visit, I saw a total of six people of color visiting museum (relying on only visuals). While this wasn’t a new experience for me, that of being one of the few people of color in space, it was still disheartening. The location of the museum, no doubt, has something to do with it but I also believe the history that is told in the museum is responsible for this too. During the release of Hidden Figures, I can only speculate that the museum saw a large spike in the number of Black people visiting the museum. Overall, I found myself leaving the museum with more questions than I left with.