Air & Space Magazine

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The Space Shuttle’s Drive through L.A. – in Time-Lapse

Endeavour's last trip was one of its strangest.

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Space Was Not the Weirdest Place Scott Carpenter Ever Went

The astronaut's month-long stay on the ocean floor made his Mercury flight look like a Sunday drive

F-16s from various squardrans around the U.S. Air Force and the Korea Air Force perform an "elephant walk" down the runway during an exercise in South Korea. Image: U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Brittany Y. Auld

Elephant Walk

<p>F-16s get some exercise</p>

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Ingredient of Plastic Found on Titan

Cassini’s latest find hints at more exciting discoveries to come

The Mars Curiosity rover needs a way to keep its instruments calibrated, so for the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), it keeps a U.S. penny aboard. The camera took this ultra-high resolution image on October 2, showing all the Martian dust it's collected in just over a year on the planet. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Planetary Science Institute

Penny in the Martian Dust

<p>Curiosity calibrates its camera</p>

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LADEE – Measuring Almost Nothing and Looking for the Almost Invisible

The LADEE mission seeks the faintest of lunar phenomena

NASA is mostly closed for business, including posting any new photos for the public, so we're glad we bookmarked this photo bookmarked this photo posted by the center at Goddard a couple weeks ago. This rabbit-suited-up engineer is preparing thermal blankets for the James Webb Space Telescope to be tested in a vacuum chamber. As described on the Instagram post: Those blankets are made of aluminized kapton, a polymer film that remains stable over a wide range of temperatures. Just as blankets insulate people from cold, these golden-colored thermal blankets help prevent heat from seeping into the vacuum chamber that will drop temperatures to mimic those of deep space. Photo: NASA Goddard / Chris Gunn

Telescope Blankets

<p>Engineers test components that will keep a telescope warm in space.</p>

Three times larger than a standard balloon, Nadar's Géant featured a two-story gondola. Visitors flocked to see it on display at London’s Crystal Garden in 1863.

Flight of the Giant

In 1863, the world's first aerial photographer launched the world's largest balloon. It didn't go so well.

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Mystery of the Martian Methane

Curiosity’s failure to find this possible marker of life makes the puzzle more interesting

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Going Nowhere Fast (and Loving It)

It's only a simulation, but it's only half the price of a real flight

The northern lights came so low last night, October 1, that skywatchers in a huge chunk of the upper U.S. got quite the show. Twitter user @coreburn is posting some of the most spectacular photos and videos, though we were taken by the lovely red colors in this image above by Ryan O'Hara, as seen in Stoughton, Wisconsin. Image: Ryan O'Hara

Go Low, Aurora

<p>Much of the U.S. saw a beautiful show of October northern lights.</p>

The Enola Gay in 2003, shortly after moving to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, but before the museum opened.

Why did the Enola Gay’s tail markings change?

In this image from the State Library of Queensland, crowds come to see the Avro Avian in Brisbane shortly after Australian aviator Bert Hinkler made the first solo flight in it from Britain to Australia in 1928. Photo courtesy State Library of Queensland, Australia

Brisbane Gawkers

<p>Australians come out to see a history-making airplane.</p>

This C-17 Globemaster III, part of a joint field training exercise for aeromedical evacuations, taxis by a brilliant sunset at Pittsburgh International Airport in Pennsylvania. Photo: U.S. Air Force — Tech. Sgt. Efren Lopez

A Globe Sunset

<p>Taxiing at the end of a long day.</p>

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P-51 Mustang “Voodoo”

The &quot;diatom&quot; in question.

Life Raining Down from Space?

Not likely

The Soyuz rocket with half the Expedition 37 crew is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station this afternoon at 4:58 p.m. Eastern. But before the astronauts can leave Earth, a Russian Orthodox priest traditionally blesses just about everything headed towards the skies. On Tuesday afternoon, the priest blessed the rocket, poised to launch from the pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome. The crew gets their own blessings, too, up close and personal, as NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, who flew to the station in May, might tell you.

Soyuz Blessing

<p>A Russian tradition during launch preparations.</p>

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The Quest for Life Elsewhere – Rationale for a Space Program?

Should searching for extraterrestrial life be the primary goal of our space program?

The Library of Congress is full of interesting, historical photographers, some of which have little to no information describing the image. They posted this photo showing a "Model of Shillcutt Aeroplane" to their Flickr Commons page, and lucked into some source information provided by a knowledgeable commenter, including that this interesting aircraft design was patented by Alburt A. Shillcut in 1912. You can see many other airplane photos from the Library's archives here. Image courtesy Library of Congress

A Shillcutt Aeroplane

<p>An aircraft design that never quite made it out of the patent stage.</p>

Orbital&#8217;s Antares rocket takes off from Wallops Island, Virginia, with the Cygnus cargo ship on top.

New Spaceships, New Times

The end of the beginning of commercial spaceflight

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