Things Are Looking Up: Events Related to the Skies and Space

By Troy Segal

Feeling a touch spacey these days? Just rise above it, with talks, screenings, and activities that reach for the stars with their atmospheric and astronomical themes.

Tuskegee Airmen ca. 1942-43

Two aeronautical generations meet, when students from the Cooper Union’s pre-college engineering program present their projects to members of the Tuskegee Airmen, those renowned fighter pilots from World War II, Aug. 7.

Coo again (or for the first time) at E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, the cutest little alien who ever landed on our planet, and an adorable, impossibly young Drew Barrymore, in this screening of Steven Spielberg’s classic, Aug. 13.

Voyage to galaxies far, far away, as two astronomical experts from the American Museum of Natural History explore the possibility of populated planets beyond our own, Aug. 26.

Author Craig Nelson (Rocket Men) traces the history and key players of the Atomic Era, officially ushered in on July 16, 1945, when scientists successfully exploded the first atomic bomb above the New Mexican desert, Sept. 22.

The Hexagon KH-9 spy satellite on display at the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center. Credit: Space.com; photo by Roger Gullemette

Satellites orbiting the Earth are all over the map (literally) nowadays; learn how the very first one came to be, back in 1965, at this lecture by the project engineer who created the “spy in the sky,” Oct. 20.