Aerospace
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Thuds, the Ridge, and 100 Missions North
How the Republic F-105 got good at a mission it was not designed to fly.
March 2009 |
By Carl Posey
Human spaceflight: What Value to Science? (Pt. 1)
There is a brief but vociferous debate about the value of human spaceflight over at Space Politics, under a discussion of the new NASA proposed budget. An often expressed opinion is that in general, humans contribute little to the scientific exploration of space. Indeed, my scientific colleagues ...
February 28, 2009 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Another Strategic Plan Misfires
There seems to be no end of new “strategic plans” designed to “save” our nation’s space program from the purgatory of mediocrity. The latest entry into the strategic planning sweepstakes comes from the Baker Institute at Rice University. Originally, I had planned to say nothing about this report,...
February 20, 2009 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Two-Timer
Where do you take your next vacation after you’ve been to space? If you’re billionaire Charles Simonyi, you go back.
February 19, 2009 |
By Irene Klotz
The Strange Story of Lunar Magnetism
We’ve known since the beginning of the space age that the Moon has no global magnetic field. Before we returned samples from the Moon, this was thought to be well understood – compared to Earth, the Moon is a small body (1% the mass) and it rotates very slowly (almost 30 times slower). The large ...
February 08, 2009 |
By Paul D. Spudis
The Art of War
The paintings of Tom Lea, Life magazine's artist-correspondent during World War II.
February 06, 2009 |
By Rebecca Maksel
A&S Interview: Georgy Mosolov
A top Soviet-era test pilot talks about his favorite MiGs and his friend Yuri Gagarin.
January 22, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
A Smashing Success
How the Ranger probes’ moon crashes helped pave the way for Apollo.
January 21, 2009 |
By Paul Hoversten
Radar mapping the Moon
The first images obtained by the Mini-SAR radar instrument aboard the Indian Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, currently orbiting the Moon, were released yesterday. Although the spacecraft arrived last November, we are only now getting ready to map the poles of the Moon. The data released are test images...
January 17, 2009 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Cities From the Sky
Sherman Fairchild, the photographer who transformed aviation
January 12, 2009 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Space Goals – One more time
It would appear that we are in the midst of yet another attempt to define the goals and objectives of our national space program. This time, the National Academy of Sciences is conducting a study on the Rationale and Goals of the U. S. Civil Space Program. After completion, this study will no dou...
January 09, 2009 |
By Paul D. Spudis
How Things Work: Ground Resonance
When is a helicopter like a Patsy Cline song? When it falls to pieces.
January 2009 |
By Peter Garrison
One More Second
The masters of time are about to give us a little extra. Use it wisely.
January 2009 |
By James R. Chiles
You’ve Got Mailplanes
Square-tail Stearmans, straight-wing Wacos, and Hisso Jennies top the roster of antique airplanes at a captivating grass strip in Iowa.
January 2009 |
By John Fleischman
A Cameraman on Mars
If you really want to know the planet, flip through Mike Malin’s photo album.
January 2009 |
By Andrew Chaikin
