Last week, I traveled to Washington DC in order to participate in
the annual meeting of the
Anita Borg Institute Technical Advisory Board. The first
place I visited between meetings was the
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on the national mall.
This building seems to contains the first of everything: the actual planes
and equipment, rarely models. Since 2007 is
the 50th anniversary of
Sputnik, the Smithsonian had a special exhibit about the U.S.-Soviet space
race, including a life size replica of Sputnik hanging from the ceiling.
(It was borrowed from the Soviet space museum.) There is even a figure of
Sally Ride, the first American Space Woman (whom I was thrilled to meet
in person at the 2006 Grace Hopper
Celebration of Women in Computing).
You can tell I am a native Californian because I take photos of snow…
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Arriving with the first snow 
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George Washington head with snow 
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Rose in first snow 
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Washington Monument (mall with snow) 
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50 Years of the Space Age
with 1957 Sputnik
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Smithsonian rockets 
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Smithsonian 1969 lunar lander 
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MacCready’s 1977 Gossamer Condor 
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Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis 1927 
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Yeager’s 1947 X-1 Glamorous Glennis 
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Wright Brothers’ 1903 Flyer 
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Images Copyright 2007 by Katy Dickinson
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