Space Talks

earth and sputnick

Discover the history and science behind our exploration of the moon, Mars, and the universe with these talks presented by docents Donn Anderson & John Jennings from Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum.

Space Talks are held on the first Saturday of the month, from 11am-12:30pm. All talks are free and open to the public.

Did you know? You can reserve a free admission pass to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum with the library's Cultural Passes. Find out more on the Cultural Passes page.

2025 SPACE TALKS

  • Saturday, Jan. 4: Rocket Engines Then and Now. One of the most massive rocket engines ever built powered the Saturn V Moon Rocket over 50 years ago. A huge rocket, the SpaceX Starship, is flying today. How does the Saturn’s F-1 compare to the SpaceX Raptor 3?

  • Saturday, Feb. 1: A Close Encounter with Pluto. When Pluto was first discovered, it was considered the 9th planet. But we knew very little about it. Everything changed with the New Horizons flyby. Scientists were thrilled and astounded. Come experience this for yourself!

  • Saturday, Mar. 1: Encounter at Ultima Thule. The New Horizons spacecraft sped past Pluto out into a vast region of our Solar System named the Kuiper Belt. Could it find, approach, and study anything there? YES! What does it look like? What have we learned about it?

  • Saturday, Apr. 5: The Very First Launch of the Space Shuttle.  Come hear what it was like to witness the launch of Columbia in this anniversary month of its very first flight. Within an hour, the astronauts realized that all was not well on this dangerous manned test flight! What happened?

  • Saturday, May 3: TOPIC CHANGE: Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon. Watch a free screening of the IMAX film "Magnificent Desolation" (40 minutes), followed by Q&A with Apollo-era rocket engineer John Jennings.

  • Saturday, June 7: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence at NASA. NASA is rapidly adopting and applying the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to its missions.  Come find out about the variety of missions and the spacecraft to carry them out that are all beginning to realize the benefits and power of Artificial Intelligence.

  • *SPECIAL DATE* Saturday, July 12: TOPIC CHANGE: NASA's Innovative Artemis CLPS Initiative. As part of NASA’s Artemis Moon Program, CLPS, which stands for Commercial Lunar Payload Services, is designed to establish private sector lunar landers to deliver small and medium sized scientific payloads and technology demonstrations to the Moon’s surface. Come learn more about this plan to use commercial capabilities for scientific exploration, technology development, and resource prospecting on the Moon, enabling a sustainable and long-term presence on our nearest neighbor in space! To date there have been three attempts to land on the Moon, but only one has been successful, which we will discuss.

  • Saturday, Aug. 2: Lucy - The First Mission to Explore the Jupiter Trojan Asteroids. Leading and following the planet Jupiter orbit are some asteroids thought to be remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets. Launched in October 2021, it is on a nine-year mission that involves numerous trajectory changes.  Lucy is also on a very high delta-v mission consisting of three Earth gravity assists, six asteroid encounters, and five deep space maneuvers.

  • Saturday, Sept. 6: The Search for Life in Our Galaxy. Studying the light that travels from outside our galaxy to us, NASA has learned some exciting information. Find out what’s new!

  • Saturday, Oct. 4: Orbiting and Landing on a Comet. In 2016, an amazing spacecraft from the European Space Agency completed a 12 year, 6 month, and 28 day mission to travel to, rendezvous with, place a lander on, and conduct an intense, up close study of a comet. Come be amazed at what they found out!

  • Saturday, Nov. 1: LRO And MRO: Our Lunar And Martian Reconnaissance Orbiters. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been circling the Moon since 2009. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been doing the same at our nearest potentially habitable planet since 2006. Both have high resolution cameras continually photographing everything from orbit. You’ll be amazed at what we’ve learned, and continue to learn from them!

  • *SPECIAL DATE* Saturday, Dec. 13: Touching the Sun’s Super Hot Corona, and Surviving! Launched in 2018, NASAs Parker Solar Probe has been coming closer and closer to the Sun, with the goal of actually flying through the outer edges of the Sun’s atmosphere - its Corona. What new, groundbreaking things are we learning about our nearest star?

  • Printer-friendly version