Meet Kate Good, the Associate Curator of Aerospace at the Intrepid Museum in New York City.
Kate combines her expertise in history and passion for aerospace to develop engaging exhibits that educate the public about the intertwined narratives of science and history.
Growing up in upstate New York, Kate was captivated by space exploration from a young age.
This fascination guided her from dreams of becoming an astronaut to a significant role at the Intrepid Museum, where she curates compelling educational content and interactive programs.
In this episode, you'll discover:
Kate’s transformative journey from aspiring astronaut to aerospace curator.
How her background in history and passion for science come alive in the museum’s exhibits.
The role of the Intrepid Museum in preserving and teaching space and aviation history.
The importance of hands-on educational programs in inspiring future generations in STEM.
Kate’s insights on the significance of storytelling in making space exploration relatable and inspiring.
Quote:
“Space isn’t just rockets and stars and things like that.
There’s a lot that goes into this with the human aspect of it, technology development, stuff that we ended up with on Earth, like Velcro?
Space isn't just rockets and stars and things like that. There's a lot that goes into this with the human aspect of it, technology development, stuff that we ended up with on Earth, Velcro? Velcro's from space.
Hi. I'm Kate Goode, and you're listening to Your Business in Space. I am the associate curator of aerospace at the Intrepid Museum in New York City.
That means what I do is I oversee the designs of the aircraft and the Space Shuttle Pavilion and decide kind of where things should be organized in terms of the artifacts themselves. So I help make sure everything's where it's supposed to go and everything looks cool.
I also build a lot of new content and explanations for people to understand what we're trying to present, whether they're 5 or they're 95.
Growing up, when I was a kid starting in about preschool, I really wanted to be an astronaut. And, of course, this is during the shuttle era and you're seeing them go up. We used to watch during school, and I grew up in upstate New York. I told my mom when I was in kindergarten or 1st grade that I needed her to stand on the front lawn so I could wave to her from the space shuttle when I went up, And I still make that joke because I've actually done work on the Enterprise here, and I literally waved at my mom on a live stream and told her hi from the space shuttle. And as I grew up, I was still interested in engineering. I had a lot of teachers who were behind me 100% of the way and my interest and encouraged that and really got me to where I am today. I also went to space camp twice. So that was another one is when I was 12 and 14, I went to space camp and you get to meet astronauts and the engineers and you're using the simulator.
I was the pilot in the simulator and I actually landed in the wrong place. I was not supposed to land at Edwards. Oops. But as I continue forward, I got more into engineering things and math. I took a lot of physics, and then I broke my foot when I was in high school, and because of the damage to my foot, there's no way I could have passed the medical tests for any of that. So then we had to switch gears, and I said, you know what? Aerospace engineering, I'm down. So when I went to college, Virginia Tech, go Hokies. Go Hokies forever.
I started out mechanical engineering. I was in that for two and a half years and I sat down and flew up mechanics and said, this is cool, I don't wanna do this for a living. So I switched over to history, which has always been an absolute passion of mine. And my era of history is nuclear weapons and the Cold War is where I really came from. I had another professor who was extremely encouraging. Now at this point, we're friends, and he still is on board with my entire career. Like, he has not he has not abandoned me yet. So I switched from mechanical engineering to history, graduated with my bachelor's in history, still from tech.
ld. My husband and I moved in:
restoration, and eventually,:
A slot opened and I got hired in restoration, and it was so cool. Working on an a 12, which is my absolute favorite plane on the planet, you literally cannot pick anything cooler to me at least. An A12 is a spy plane. It's the predecessor to the Blackbird.
The A12 is not a Blackbird. Goodness gracious.
And we have one up on the flight deck here, and it's huge. And you think about this being a stealth plane, and you would think, oh, wouldn't we want something smaller? But nope. It's one of the fastest planes on record and it was in service from the late fifties until the early sixties when it was replaced by the SR-seventy one Blackbird.
So most places have the SR-seventy one. There are only nine A-12s left that are in existence.
They're spread across the country in different places, but we happen to have one of them. And there's actually a photograph online if you just Google a 12, and it's a black and white picture of an a 12 inverted on what looks like a post to do, different testing. That's our a 12 that's on the post.
So definitely Google that because it's really cool. Having something all black like that is already a very odd look to things and it's so streamlined and the engineering is incredible and obviously when I was 5, I didn't know that part, but it was always something that just stayed in my heart.
I desperately if I could ever sit in the cockpit of 1 of these, I could die tomorrow. But I would be so enamored and so thrilled to just, yep, nope, life is good, done. I always like to tell people not only is it my job, it's my hobby. I love it. I read outside of here, I interact with other museums. I really enjoy talking to people about it.
And it's just something that bringing all of that here and having the ability to share it with a wider public is incredible. What an awesome just opportunity to be able to really, really show people, okay, space isn't just rockets and stars and things like that. There's a lot that goes into this with the human aspect of it, technology development, stuff that we ended up with on Earth. Velcro? Velcro's from space, and people use Velcro every day. Well, some people use Velcro every day. I use Velcro every day. NASA currently has a call for applications out that you can apply for if you are in a science field, engineering. They have all kinds of different things.
Medical background is something that they're looking for. So they really are asking people, this isn't just test pilots anymore. They're really asking people, hey, take your skills, Come over here, and let's see where we can place you. And while you may not end up it as an astronaut directly, there's high chance you're gonna end up somewhere at NASA doing your job. So that's a really, really cool thing of, alright, maybe you didn't fit to go to space. However, we still need you on the ground to learn about this medical testing, to help us figure out how to make clean water, and all of that expands to regular Earth as well. We need the same stuff. So you really have an opportunity to go into a STEM field and still come out potentially an astronaut, potentially doing things for other international places to do their space adventure stuff too.
One of the big things about NOW and the Artemis program is the international cooperation.
This isn't just NASA, It's a large amount of corporations. It's also other international organizations. Europe has their own European Space Agency, and other countries are coming together to do this in a way that's never been done before.
When I was transitioning from engineering to history, I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to do anything with aerospace and things like that because everybody's like, oh, World War 2 and the Civil War. You're in the South. That's all we got. It's not true.
You really need the opportunity to look through and have those mentors who guide you if you can find them.
And I think one of the misconceptions of at least the history field is that you have to be a teacher.
There's so many things that everybody goes, oh, nope. Gonna be a teacher. And there's wide opportunities to transfer the skills that you have as a historian and a researcher and a writer to really some people go into journalism. Obviously, I went into museums and that's been magical. But that's kind of the way that this really goes. And the best advice that I have gotten in my entire career was in college, and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do.
And I had a mentor from high school email me and tell me you're never too old to change your life.
And that's something that, you know what? I'm on plan L of my life.
I've had the privilege and the opportunity to follow what my actual dreams are. And that's really cliche, but it's true.
My name is Kate Good and you've been listening to Your Business in Space.
All the ways to connect with me and learn more about the Intrepid Museum are included in links in the notes.
