Aerospace
The technology and science of commercial and military air and space flightDiscover Air & Space articles about aerospace science, technology, industry, recreation and government programs.
- Explore more »
A&S Interview: Richard Altman
Executive Director, Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative
January 2011 |
By Paul Hoversten
You've Got EMALS
We told you all about electromagnetic catapults in this story from January 2007. Now the first airplane has been launched with an EMALS system: an F/A-18E Super Hornet, at a Navy test site in Lakehurst, New Jersey.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euLsg_viWW0
December 30, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Concorde: Flying Supersonic
For 27 years, the Concorde carried passengers across the Atlantic Ocean at twice the speed of sound, on the very edge of space. A flight from New York to London took a mere 3 ½ hours; the supersonic aircraft flew so high and so fast that American spyplanes were ordered to stay out of the Concorde’s...
December 27, 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Rare Views Inside the Soyuz
I was surprised by these photos, but I shouldn't have been.Most pictures of Russian space crews in the Soyuz TMA vehicle show them squished together like sardines, sitting side by side on their launch "couches." I've always wondered how they can move their arms, let alone get anything done, during ...
December 22, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Scott Kelly's Home Video
Lots of space station astronauts have narrated video tours of their digs in space. This one, by current ISS commander Scott Kelly, struck me as more intimate, like a friend showing you around his new house:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4dG9vSyUFQSpeaking of Kelly, the recent slip of his twin brot...
December 21, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Can we afford to return to the Moon?
We are almost at the end of a year that has seen major changes in our space program. We have in hand a report from a “blue ribbon” Presidential committee that concluded that Project Constellation, the architecture NASA had chosen to implement the Vision for Space Exploration, was not affordable at...
December 21, 2010 |
By Paul D. Spudis
New Light on the Lunar Poles
A new image released this week by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera Team shows the lighting conditions of the south pole of the Moon. This new data supports the conclusions of many previous studies that areas exist on the Moon that are illuminated by the sun for more than one-half the lunar ...
December 17, 2010 |
By Paul D. Spudis
The Astronaut's Husband
The second half of the space station Expedition 26 crew headed off to work this afternoon, as Russian Dmitry Kondratyev, Italian Paolo Nespoli, and American Cady Coleman were launched on the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Coleman, a two-time shuttle astronaut, began her six-mont...
December 15, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Skydiving Over Google Earth
Awesome. I love the little blast of air they get at around the 48-second mark.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmxM_CknSZw
December 14, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Bang Zoom!
Engineers with the Office of Naval Research set a new world record on Friday by firing an electromagnetic railgun "cannon" with an energy of 33 megajoules, or 33 million joules. That would be enough, in an operational system, to shoot a projectile 110 miles from a ship, at speeds up to Mach 5.Here'...
December 13, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
The Human Crash Test Dummy
You had to hand it to John Stapp. When it came to exploring the limits of human tolerance, he didn't ask test subjects to try anything he wasn't willing to do himself.On this day in 1954, Stapp set the record for G-force tolerance—a whopping 46.2 Gs.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfZjN2ceVOI
December 10, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Dragon's Fire
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is now two-for-two: It launched the company's Dragon space capsule into orbit this morning.Here's video of the launch: And here's video from inside Dragon, the world's first privately developed recoverable space capsule:
December 08, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
In From the Cold
Like all good spooks, the U.S. Air Force's X-37 orbital spaceplane came in from the cold—in the middle of the night, of course—on December 3 after a seven-month inaugural orbital test flight. It's shown here at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, its primary landing spot, shortly after touchdo...
December 06, 2010 |
By Mike Klesius
Still, It Was a Crowd Pleaser
Four T-38 pilots from Vance AFB in Oklahoma are being investigated by the Air Force for flying too low over a college football crowd last month. They came screaming over the University of Iowa's Kinnick Stadium at an altitude of 500 feet just as the national anthem ended—but were supposed to be twi...
December 06, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
A Founding Father of Lunar Science
I learned that a titan of lunar science passed away last month. Dr. Ralph Belknap Baldwin (1912-2010) was a rare specimen – a gentleman scholar, businessman and pioneering student of the Moon. Beyond the impact of his books and papers, he influenced space history in several profound ways.Baldwin,...
December 04, 2010 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Heavens Above
We've come a long way from Madalyn Murray O'Hair.She was, you'll recall, the activist atheist who campaigned against government sanctioning of religion—including NASA astronauts reading from the Book of Genesis during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968.But times have changed. Even Russians are now carryi...
December 03, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Shuttle Program's Value: $12 Billion
This line from a recent NASA Inspector General report jumped out at me:
In addition to managing Shuttle funding challenges, the transition and retirement activities associated with the end of the Shuttle Program present one of the largest such efforts ever undertaken by NASA. The Shuttle Program is...
November 29, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
T-bird Low Show
Are the United States Air Force Thunderbirds offering a new "low show" when cloud cover is below minimums?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUdHAx6gZqg&NR=1
We contacted the demonstration squadron and asked. Their reply: "Thank you for your interest in the USAF Thunderbirds and for taking the tim...
November 24, 2010 |
By Mike Klesius
