NASA is coming back to the Duluth Airshow for the first time since 2017, and they’re making the most of the trip by visiting area schools and The Depot Steam festival.

In addition to the Journey to Tomorrow interactive, traveling exhibit, they’re bringing a couple of Duluth’s hometown stars: Heather McDonald, the chief engineer of the International Space Station Program, and Chris Giuffre, an aerospace engineer contractor for the Icing Tunnel at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

McDonald is responsible for integrating the work of about 20 engineering units, involving hundreds of engineers across NASA. She is the first female chief engineer of the space station in the more than 20-year history of the program.

Giuffre, along with cloud technician contractor Emily Timko, will discuss their work in the nation’s largest refrigerated wind tunnel.

Giuffre told The Lift he was excited to be back and doing outreach work, “It’s kind of surreal to be on the other side of the airshow. When you’re young, you don’t really know how it all works.”

“NASA was definitely a dream from the time I was a tiny child, when I knew NASA shot rockets into space.” Now Giuffre works in the ‘Aeronautics’ part of NASA, studying the way ice builds up on planes.

Chris and others will be doing outreach at the Duluth Airshow is Saturday & Sunday and The Depot’s STEAM Festival from 10 a.m. – noon Saturday.