posted 10-15-2007 01:31 PM               

NASA To Be the Featured Agency in 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival

NASA and the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage are partnering for the 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. The festival showcasing NASA will run on the National Mall from June 25 to July 6, 2008.

NASA will be only the second featured federal agency in the history of the festival, which annually attracts an audience of more than a million people. The Folklife Festival also will highlight the food and music of the state of Texas and the mountainous Asian nation of Bhutan. An annual survey of tourism agencies and convention and tourism bureaus around the country labeled the Folklife Festival as America's No. 1 tourism event.

"We are excited that NASA's participation will give people from throughout our country and the world the opportunity to learn from and interact with our engineers, scientists, astronauts and skilled craftspeople," said Robert Hopkins, NASA chief of Strategic Communications, Headquarters, Washington. "The Folklife Festival's purpose is to introduce visitors to 'the immense breadth of community-based art, skill, knowledge, and wisdom,' and NASA is proud to be one of the few federal agencies in the history of the festival to be celebrated. This will be a tremendous event to showcase NASA's past accomplishments and plans to extend humanity's reach throughout the solar system during our 50th anniversary year."

"The Festival looks forward to the opportunity to give the public a glimpse behind the scenes at the agency that literally broadens our horizons," said Diana Parker, director of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

With an emphasis on audience participation, the festival program will encourage visitors to engage one on one with NASA experts in presentation areas on the Mall. The presentations are tied to NASA's mission goals in aeronautics, space exploration, science and human spaceflight.

The NASA program will include live presentations, hands-on educational activities, narrative oral history sessions and demonstrations of the skills, techniques and knowledge of real rocket scientists. Exhibits will explore the spirit of inspiration, innovation, discovery and public service embodied by the agency and its personnel.

posted 05-16-2008 03:46 PM               

Smithsonian's Folklife Festival Celebrates 50th Anniversary of NASA

Moon buggies, stardust and space food are a few of the things visitors will learn about this summer at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival's "NASA: 50 Years and Beyond" program. The program will showcase the role that NASA's men and women have played in broadening the horizons of American science and culture.

The Festival will be held Wednesday, June 25 through Sunday, June 29 and Wednesday, July 2 through Sunday, July 6 outdoors on the National Mall between Seventh and 14th streets. Admission is free. Festival hours are from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. each day, with such special evening events as concerts and dance parties beginning at 6 p.m. The Festival is co-sponsored by the National Park Service.

"Folklore and folklife festivals are not often associated with the engineers, scientists and administrators who work for NASA," said curator Jim Deutsch of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. "After all, NASA generally perceives itself as a paragon of progressive science, continually breaking new ground rather than conserving its culture. But every work group has its own set of skills, specialized knowledge and codes of behavior that not only distinguish it from other occupational groups but also meet its needs as a community. NASA-on the occasion of its 50th anniversary-is no exception, as this year's Folklife Festival program will demonstrate."

Through hands-on educational activities, demonstrations, narrative sessions and exhibits, the NASA program will highlight the skills, specialized knowledge and codes of behavior unique to the agency. Approximately 200 program participants will engage visitors by encouraging them to ask questions of astronomers, astronauts, astrophysicists, educators, engineers and other experts representing a cross section of NASA's 80,000 employees, contractors and grantees. The popular, Web-based NASA Edge podcast and NASA TV will be present to report from the Festival and conduct live interviews with participants.

NASA Programs

The Festival program will illustrate the geographic and occupational diversity of NASA's 10 field centers and inform visitors of NASA's many projects. The topics of space science, Earth science, aeronautics, human spaceflight and future projects will be represented at the Festival. Space science program participants will discuss the collection and analysis of interstellar dust, robotic missions to Mars and planetary exploration, while Earth science program participants will share recent findings about climate change, weather patterns and satellite imagery.

Many people forget that the first "A" in NASA stands for aeronautics. Since its inception, NASA's employees have conducted cutting-edge research in both traditional aeronautical disciplines and new, emerging fields to support future air and space vehicles. At the Festival, aeronautics engineers and technicians will talk to visitors about the work they are doing on wind tunnel testing and air traffic control improvement.

NASA's most visible and best-known mission is that of human spaceflight. Both current and former astronauts will share their adventures and experiences with Festival visitors. Also among the program's participants will be the NASA engineers and scientists who are now readying the Constellation program, America's next generation of human spacecraft and launch systems, which will enable astronauts to return to the moon by 2020 to conduct extensive research and exploration activities.

Benefits to Society

Society benefits from the technological advances of NASA. While Tang and Velcro are not NASA inventions (contrary to legend), visitors will learn that many other commercial products and services in the fields of health, medicine, industry and consumer goods are developed from NASA-derived technologies.

Society also is intrigued and inspired by space exploration. Countless painters, sculptors, poets, musicians, writers and filmmakers have used NASA's work as the basis for their art. Several of these artists, who have documented or interpreted NASA's missions through their work, will showcase their creativity at the Festival.

Family Activities

Younger Festival visitors can participate in a variety of hands-on activities that illustrate the many different facets of NASA. Using their "Mission Guide" activities booklet, children can compare satellite images and study the impact of comets. After completing the tasks and determining if they have "the right stuff," kids will earn a reward.

Visitors to the Festival also will have the opportunity to record their memories and thoughts about NASA, such as where they were during important NASA moments.

Foodways

Daily discussions about creating menus for space, packaging food for space and planning for long-term missions beyond Earth, will inform Festival visitors of what it takes to design nutritious and appetizing meals for space travelers. NASA staff also will discuss the challenges and rewards that come with feeding a multicultural crew on the International Space Station.

Narrative Stage

Participants from all areas of the program, as well as NASA alumni and other special guests, will reflect on NASA's 50 years by sharing their stories, traditions and memories at the program's two narrative stages, Exploration and Galaxy.

Also at the Smithsonian

In the evenings during the first week of the Festival, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History will screen films relating to NASA, including "Apollo 13," "In the Shadow of the Moon" and "2001: A Space Odyssey" in its Baird auditorium.

The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum will present "Space: A Journey to Our Future," which opens June 14. This exhibition highlights current achievements in space exploration-satellites, space telescopes, living in space-and provides a glimpse into the future of human space travel.

Sponsors

"NASA: 50 Years and Beyond" is produced in partnership with NASA. Northrop Grumman is a contributor to the program, with major in-kind support provided by Jacobs Technology Inc.

About the Festival

The 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival will feature three programs. In addition to "NASA: 50 Years and Beyond," the other programs are "Bhutan: Land of the Thunder Dragon" and "Texas: A Celebration of Music, Food and Wine."

The Folklife Festival, inaugurated in 1967, honors people from across the United States and around the world. With approximately 1 million visitors each year, the Festival unites presenters and performers in the nation's capital to celebrate the diversity of cultural traditions. It is produced by the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

posted 06-24-2008 12:58 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by tncmaxq:
Maybe I am not looking in the right places but is there any way of knowing when specifically each astronaut will be appearing?

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posted 06-25-2008 08:56 PM               

I tried to find out if there was a schedule of which astronauts would be appearing when, but no one seemed to have that information.

posted 06-25-2008 09:22 PM               

Free; first come, first served! Note: it is not being shown at NASM, but at the National Museum of Natural History's Baird Auditorium (enter Constitution Ave.)

I'm going to the festival tomorrow, but I think I might go back into Washington for this. I believe this will be the only appearance during the festival by an astronaut who flew a pre-shuttle mission- I wish there had been more.

posted 06-26-2008 10:02 PM               

As far as Mattingly goes, I met him only once, at the Apollo 11 twentieth anniv., also in DC. He was very nice, if reserved. Signed the Apollo 16 crew photo for me. I don't know if he charges a fee now though. Charlie Duke also signed that photo. Unfortunately John Young had already stopped signing in person as of 1989.

posted 06-27-2008 12:17 PM               

The NASA tents and other exhibits are set up towards the western side of the Mall.

There was a LOT about Orion and other upcoming missions. In fact, look at this: they built a larger-than-full-scale, 555-foot-tall model right next to the Washington Monument! (OK, it's about 20 feet tall, blocks from the monument, I had to stand in just the right spot to get this picture. I am POSITIVE that I am the only person who will think of doing this during the festival.)

It was great to hear three shuttle/ISS astronauts talk about their experiences, especially Pierre Thuot- he described grabbing a satellite AND appearing on MTV with the all-astronaut band Max-Q.

Visitors can handle all sorts of hardware, including flown shuttle tire segments, flown honeycomb airleron pieces, ready-to-fly food (with English and Russian labels), this for-training Apollo suit...

and this 2nd or 3rd stage Saturn booster (that's the National Museum of American History in the background, closed for a year for renovations):

Here is a view of some of the many tents...

each dealing with a specific subject. A few of them: hardware used to examine meteorites, great stuff on unmanned missions to asteroids, a sun viewer (there was a prominence shooting out, which I've never seen before), the Mars rovers (there was a 15-foot-wide 3-D banner), giant models of the space telescopes and ISS, and a tent where one could record their own impressions of NASA events for an oral history project.

One final note: all of this was taking place right next to an equally-sized exhibit on life in Bhutan. I won't say "Only in DC", but there can't be too many places where one can ask someone about what it was like to live in outer space, then walk 50 feet to watch people from a tiny country on the other side of the world do a thousand-year-old dance. (You can search Google Images search for "Bhutan mask dance" if you want to know what that looks like.)

posted 06-27-2008 12:33 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by stsmithva:
I won't say "Only in DC", but there can't be too many places where one can ask someone about what it was like to live in outer space, then walk 50 feet to watch people from a tiny country on the other side of the world do a thousand-year-old dance.

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This year's festival celebrates three themes: Bhutan: Land of the Thunder Dragon, NASA: Fifty Years and Beyond, and Texas: A Celebration of Food, Music and Wine. One might think it's an odd combination, but Festival Director Diana Parker explains that, while this year's themes were selected based on individual merit and logistical feasibility, there are more than a few connections. For example, NASA's Johnson Space Center resides in Texas; a former dean's wife at UT El Paso's love for Buhtanese-style buildings heavily influenced the campus' architecture; Bhutan's postage stamps commemorate America's space program. OK, so it's a reach.

posted 06-27-2008 03:42 PM               

While there I got a quick look at a schedule and it listed which astronauts will there on which days:

• July 2- Thuot, Forrester, C. Walker, and Readdy
  
• July 3- O'Connor and Shriver
  
• July 4- Williams, Jones. Shriver and Walker
  
• July 5- Williams, Shriver and Walker
  
• July 6- Shriver and Walker

posted 06-28-2008 02:15 PM               

Bhutan's postage stamps commemorate America's space program.

posted 06-29-2008 09:16 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by stsmithva:
Mattingly was a no-show tonight ... Well, it was nice seeing several cSers there, and Jeannie Kranz was wonderfully friendly and interesting. Steve

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It was a tad disappointing that Mattingly was not there, particularly since the lady at the museum said they had been told on Friday that he would be unable to attend. I'm not sure why they didn't post an update on their web site.

Still, it was a nice day and there were quite a few cS folks there.

BTW, nice to meet you, Steve!

posted 06-30-2008 09:26 AM               

It was nice meeting you, John!

posted 07-03-2008 09:32 AM               

Sharing the stage with NASA's deputy assistant administrator for public affairs Bob Jacobs and former NASA senior policy analyst Rich Cooper, both collectors, as well as our esteemed moderator, National Air and Space Museum curator Valerie Neal, was a pleasure and an honor.

Our audience, albeit intimate, had a few NASA representatives associated with our pastime, including Ed Goldstein, lead writer at NASA who recently was behind the NASA 50th Anniversary magazine, and NASA Exhibits and Artifacts Manager, Jim Hull.

We fielded questions about why we collect, what types of items are collectible, what our favorite items in our collections are, and the process by which items are transferred from NASA to museums and collectors. We also spoke about the role the internet has had, and in particular eBay, to the hobby.

Rich brought a few of his covers to share with the audience. Bob had some space toys from his office at NASA Headquarters, as well a Grumman Lunar Module and a signed Confederate $10,000 bill signed by Wernher von Braun and the Mercury 7 astronauts. Wow!

There were several photographers present, so hopefully we'll soon be able to share a few image from the panel. The panel was also recorded, thus I hope to soon to be able to share the audio for all to listen to and (hopefully) enjoy.