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Editors' Picks

Printed in Space

If your star tracker breaks on the way to the moon, just hit Command P.

Area 51: Origins

America’s once-secret air base had humble beginnings.

Need for Speed

Airplanes with a mission: Fly faster.

The Invention of Flight

Inventors, dreamers, daredevils, charlatans: Aviation's early years had them all.

Vietnam Memoir

Stories from the war that shaped a generation.

Trending Topics

  1. Aerospace Inventions
  2. Airplane Restoration
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Space Exploration

Page 24 of 45

Slurp or Gulp?

"Well the rain exploded with a mighty crash, as we fell into the sun..." As a kid, when I heard Paul McCartney sing those words, I sort of envisioned this:Now astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have envisioned something like this happening to a planet orbiting a star 600 light-years away....
May 24, 2010 | By Mike Klesius

It’s the Space Economy, Stupid!

Those of us in favor of human lunar return have been called “dinosaurs” because, as it’s being told, we want to repeat what this nation already did 40 years ago.  If that were our mission objective, such a characterization might be valid.  But who really is the dinosaur?At a recent Senate hearing, ...
May 21, 2010 | By Paul D. Spudis

Plume Power

The space shuttle's exhaust trail makes for a lovely sight on an April morning.
May 11, 2010 | By Michael Klesius

From images sent by the Huygens probe in 2005, scientists created this view of Titan from 30,000 feet — about the altitude at which an airplane would cruise.

Titan Air

Saturn's mysterious moon may have airplanes in its future.
July 2010 | By Tony Reichhardt

<i>Discovery</i> enters the Vehicle Assembly Building.

Space Shuttle: The Time-Lapse Movie

A team of photographers captures Discovery's long journey to the launch pad.
May 17, 2010 | By The Editors

The shuttle main engine is the most tested large rocket engine in the world.

Evolution of the Space Shuttle

How 30 years changed the world's most complex flying machine.
July 2010 | By Michael Klesius

Still life with telescope, feline, and feet. Even the National Air and Space Museum uses a Dobsonian telescope to show visitors the sun.

Above and Beyond: It’s All Sawdust and Mirrors

July 01, 2010 | By Phil Scott

CAUSE FOR REFLECTION: The last scheduled night launch of the space shuttle program roused James Vernacotola in the predawn hours of February 8.

Sightings: Cause for Reflection

Endeavour lights up the sky—and water—in Florida.
July 2010 | By The Editors

Better Than Hubble—From the Ground

In the age of orbiting telescopes such as the Hubble and the not-yet-launched James Webb Space Telescope, it's worth giving a nod to the dramatic advances made in building ground-based telescopes.The board of trustees of the Carnegie Institution for Science just authorized the release of $59.2 mill...
May 18, 2010 | By Mike Klesius

Using the Earth to study the Moon

Last week, the Science Team of the Mini-RF imaging radar experiment aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission, met in Flagstaff, Arizona.  We were there to conduct field studies of some interesting lunar analogs that occur in this area. Scientists study the planets through a variety of ...
May 15, 2010 | By Paul D. Spudis

Japan Sets Sail for Venus

While the U.S. space program is mired in political arguments over how to reach Earth orbit (something we've known how to do for 50 years), Japan's space agency JAXA, with far less money, is about to take a small but noteworthy step into the future.An HII-A launcher is scheduled to lift off from the...
May 14, 2010 | By Tony Reichhardt

Pad Abort Test: The Videos

NASA has released better video of the recent launch abort system test in New Mexico. Some spectacular views here.
May 12, 2010 | By Tony Reichhardt

Rosetta views Earth, November 2009.

From Beyond

A new exhibition of awe-inspiring photos from the first 50 years of planetary exploration.
May 18, 2010 | By The Editors

Voyager 2 Skips a Beat

Flight directors at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California are troubleshooting a glitch with the distant Voyager 2 spacecraft, which is still sending back signals from the outer solar system 33 years after it was launched. According to a JPL release, ground controllers haven't received inte...
May 10, 2010 | By Tony Reichhardt

Behold Excalibur

Among the more intriguing commercial space vehicles on the drawing board is Excalibur Almaz, whose backers propose to use leftover vehicles built for a Soviet military space station program that died aborning in the 1970s. The principals in the company include Art Dula, an old hand in the field of ...
May 06, 2010 | By Tony Reichhardt

NASA

Exit Strategy

NASA’s new launch abort system just passed a major test. But what booster and capsule will use it?
May 06, 2010 | By Michael Klesius

The Four Flavors of Lunar Water

The Moon is constantly bombarded by the solid debris of the Solar System. Comets, asteroids and interplanetary dust, all containing varying amounts of water, have pounded the lunar surface for billions of years. Yet until recently, the Moon was considered to be barren and bone-dry. Rock and soil...
May 02, 2010 | By Paul D. Spudis

Browsing the Webb

The James Webb Space Telescope just cleared its most significant milestone, the Mission Critical Design Review. This means that the orbiting infrared observatory, scheduled to launch on an Ariane 5 rocket no earlier than June 2014 into orbit around the sun, about a million miles from Earth, is expe...
April 29, 2010 | By Mike Klesius

Power of the Pen

Still picking yourself up off the floor after reading our recent post about the $152,000 that was paid at auction for Neil Armstrong's autograph, along with his famous "one small step" quote, written on a sheet of the Apollo 11 flight plan?Here's what Armstrong had to say in his 2005 biography by J...
April 26, 2010 | By Mike Klesius

Manhigh Pioneer David Simons, 1922-2010

Six weeks before Sputnik 1 ushered in the Space Age, and four years before Yuri Gagarin's Vostok 1 flight, an adventurous young biomedical researcher named David Simons climbed to the edge of space inside a pressurized capsule, as part of a project called Manhigh. As we wrote in an article publishe...
April 23, 2010 | By Tony Reichhardt

« Previous 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Next »

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A Mosquito in Flight

Restored from the hull up, a de Havilland Mosquito flies over New Zealand's Hauraki Gulf.

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A very close look at the mountaintops around North America’s highest peak.

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Need to Know

Why do NASA launch times depend on lighting conditions?

It's all about the solar beta angle.

Air & Space Interview

NASA Chief Technologist Bobby Braun talks about technology and innovation to attendees at the AARP "Orlando @50+" Conference in Orlando, Fl., Oct. 1, 2010.  Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Bobby Braun

NASA's outgoing Chief Technologist talks about what's in the R&D pipeline

In the Magazine

July 2013

  • Where Have All the Shuttle Engineers Gone?
  • Panthers At Sea
  • Earth-Like Planets Could be Right Next Door
  • Alaska and the Airplane
  • The Pilots of Mount McKinley

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Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine has been delighting aerospace enthusiasts with the best writing about their favorite subject since April 1986. As an adjunct of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, Air & Space matches the grand scope of the Museum, encompassing every era of aviation and space exploration. With stories that range from the Wright Brothers to the design of NASA's next lunar lander, Air & Space emphasizes the human stories as well as the technology of aviation and spaceflight.

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