Air & Space Magazine

An LC-130 of the New York Air National Guard's 109th Airlift Wing gets a jet-assisted takeoff from Camp Summit, Greenland, in 2011.

The Dump Truck of Airplanes

When you're stuck on the Greenland ice, you want the LC-130.

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You Too, Yutu?

If China’s Moon rover is immobile, its scientific mission is effectively over.

Lakes on Titan

Rubye Berau (left) with her human cargo, parachutist Babe Smith, circa 1930s.

The “Squadron of Death”—That Performed in High Heels

The forgotten aviation career of Rubye Berau

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Piper Super Cub in Gisborne, New Zealand

Carla Dove (left), Nancy Rotzel (far right), and Marcy Heacker use the National Museum of Natural History's bird collection to identify birds involved in birdstrikes.

What Bird Species Is Most Likely to Hit an Airplane? (It’s Not the Canada Goose)

Birdstrikes cause millions of dollars worth of damage each year. Forensic ornithologist Carla Dove is searching for a remedy.

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Thunderbolt in Shelter

An A-10 Thunderbolt II waits out a foggy morning at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Michigan.

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A Space Apple a Day

An Expedition 38 crew member floats his lunch in the cupola of the International Space Station.

Sophie Blanchard's August 15, 1811 ascent marking the birthday of Napoleon.

Napoleon’s Favorite Balloonist

How Sophie Blanchard became France’s “aeronaut of official holidays”

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B-1B Lancer Cockpit

The departing Galileo spacecraft looks back on the home planet in 1996.

Planets More Hospitable Than Earth?

Maybe in the short term, but not in an evolutionary sense.

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WWII Aircraft in Formation

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The U.S., One Strip at a Time

The NASA and USGS-run Landsat 8 satellite has been in orbit for a year, and the science team has been compiling this image of the U.S. to test its data. The satellite can cover 115-mile wide strips at a time, and it takes 223 passes over 16 days to image the entire country (it took a few times to get cloudless days). Landsat 8 is the most recent iteration of the Landsat family, at least one of which has been in continual service since 1972.

View of the Moon at gamma-ray wavelengths, as imaged by the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory satellite. These gamma rays are induced during the collision of cosmic rays with the lunar surface, the same process recently found able to synthesize complex organic molecules in lunar polar ice deposits.

Lunar Forensic Files

Studying life’s processes and origin on the Moon

Proposing at the Museum

Want to make your engagement memorable? Pop the question under the SR-71.

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Over the Snowy Pentagon

U.S. Air Force Capt. Philip Gunn participates in a flyover during the internment ceremony of Brig. Gen. Robinson Risner, Jan. 23, 2014, at Arlington National Cemetery. Risner was the Air Force's 20th ace and survived more than seven years of captivity as a prisoner during the Vietnam War. Gunn is a 336th Fighter Squadron weapons system officer assigned to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C. (Caption by U.S. Air Force)

The Day I Dropped the Oxygen Masks On My Passengers

This is what happens when we rush

The Il-76MD transport, one contender for a cosmonaut rescue vehicle.

Planes, Ships…and Caspian Monsters

Russia rethinks how to rescue returning cosmonauts

The original team. Should we worry that Joe's dog tags are as big as his head?

Guys and Dolls: G.I. Joe Is 50

On this day in 1964, Hasbro introduced an American icon.

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Crashing Into Mars

The NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter team released this image on February 5 showing a spectacular impact crater on Mars. The crater is about 100 feet wide and threw debris more than nine miles away.

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