Giant Leaps:
LSC Film Series
Applying some science to the Hollywood perspectives on space travel and aviation
Did Stanley Kubrick really foresee the future of space exploration? How does a woman fighter pilot find her way around the boys' club of military flight school? What really happened on the Apollo 13 mission?
On three Wednesdays in April, MIT Aero-Astro faculty -- including a former fighter pilot, a former space shuttle astronaut and a designer of future space suits -- answered these questions and more as part of a special film and lecture series cosponsored by the Lecture Series Committee and Giant Leaps.
Professor Dava Newman, an aerospace engineering researcher who is working on designing the next generation of spacesuits, led off the series on April 15 with commentary on "2001: A Space Odyssey." Associate Professor Mary (Missy) Cummings, a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot, delivered her own perspective on "Top Gun" on April 22. The series concluded on April 29 with former astronaut and current Professor of the Practice Jeffrey Hoffman's introduction to "Apollo 13."
All events were held in 26-100 and were free and open to members of the MIT community. The LSC is a student-run organization that has been bringing speakers and screened entertainment to the MIT community since 1944.
