The Space Race encapsulates both the best and the worst of aspects of U.S. history. On the one hand, there is humanity’s drive to learn and explore. All space programs have no choice but to celebrate the wonders of mathematics, physics, and engineering. (To put this into ’80s film terms: no matter how jock-ish an image an astronaut wants to put forth, it’s still nerds who get us into space.) Space exploration doesn’t just raise the possibility that humanity will find new homes across the galaxy, but it also leaves technological innovation in its wake.
But there’s still that other hand. The Space Race of the 1950s and 60s was the result of intense hatred and fear between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Many of the early aims of the program were baldly militaristic rather than scientific. At least one of the leading engineers was a former Nazi. And as idealistic as NASA was, it still enforced rigid racial and gender lines, refusing to allow qualified women to train as astrona
One of their favorite projects was building leprechaun traps. The building of these traps went on for years, said their mother, Kelly Ludlam. They would often host contests on who could build the best trap … They would redesign and build again and always celebrated each other s creations.
Such childhood building was Kaitlyn s first exposure to the world of STEM, the concept of educating students in four specific disciplines science, technology, engineering and math.
It fueled her interest in robotics and space and her current status as a mechanical and aerospace engineering major at the University of Florida, which she hopes will lead to a career in the aerospace industry. And it fueled her desire to help other girls pursue STEM careers: In 2019 she founded AstroBot STEM Nonprofit Corp. as her Girl Scout Gold Award project.