NASA Glenn Visits Duluth for Air and Aviation Expo, STEAM Festival

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Air show visitors walk through the Journey to Tomorrow traveling exhibit, stopping to look at kiosk screens on both sides of center walkway.

During the Duluth Air and Aviation Expo, visitors enjoy NASA Glenn Research Center’s Journey to Tomorrow traveling exhibit. The 53-foot trailer serves as an interactive informal learning environment that brings the excitement of exploration in air and space to an event.

Credit: NASA/Heather Brown

NASA’s Glenn Research Center public engagement staff arrived in Minnesota for the Duluth Air and Aviation Expo, May 17-18, with several exhibits and two hometown stars who joined as part of a larger NASA presence. Duluthian Heather McDonald met with local students to talk about living and working in space and how she became the first female chief engineer of the International Space Station.

Astronaut stands in front of a gym full of grade-school students seated on the floor and shares her experiences on the International Space Station. A large screen in the background shows highlights from space.

During the STEAM Festival in Duluth, Heather McDonald talks with students about living and working in space and how she became the first female chief engineer of the International Space Station.

Credit: NASA/Heather Brown

She and fellow Minnesotan Jennifer Dooren, deputy news chief at NASA, engaged with more than 1,000 students and their families at the Depot STEAM Festival on May 18. NASA Glenn’s Chris Giuffre, an aerospace engineer, and Emily Timko, an icing cloud characterization engineer, shared their icing research work with aviation fans at the Duluth Air and Aviation Expo. Anchoring NASA’s presence was the Journey to Tomorrow traveling exhibit, which was such a hit, families came through multiple times throughout the weekend. An estimated 4,000 people attended the air and aviation exposition.