Air & Space Magazine | Smithsonian Magazine

The Air and Space Online Book Club

Ever finish a book and wish you could ask the author over for a little follow-up conversation? Well, here's your chance.

November 11, 2010

Chinese Moon

What impresses me most about the new photos of the moon taken by the Chinese Chang’e-2 orbiter is not their beauty (although they are pretty) nor their sharpness (NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter returns higher resolution images). It's the fact that they were unveiled by Premier Wen Jiabao (left...

November 10, 2010

November Book Club Selection: My Dream of Stars

Space traveler and entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari will discuss her book and answer questions online from November 15 to 19.

November 10, 2010

Air Force Sloganizing

The U.S. Air Force recently announced its new motto: "Aim High...Fly-Fight-Win," which generals chose out of five contenders suggested by airmen and the general public: Fly Fight Win, Aim High, Above and Beyond, Air Power, and Wings of Freedom. This from the same people who named the Boeing C-17 ...

November 9, 2010

Cloud Hopper

Chasing the mysteries of clouds and climate.

November 8, 2010

Western Low-Fly Zones: Not in My Sky

The Air Force is looking for places in the American West where pilots can practice flying special operations missions over terrain similar to the rugged mountains of Afghanistan. One proposal would call for a new Low Altitude Tactical Navigation area straddling the border of Colorado and New Mexico...

November 8, 2010

Can NASA Get Its Groove Back?

Remember when space exploration was “groovy” and excitement about seeing humans explore the Solar System within our lifetimes was palpable?

November 6, 2010

Permafrost, Snow Cones and Fairy Castles

Although the discovery of ice on the Moon comes from a wide variety of different measurements, they are all “remote sensing.”

November 6, 2010

Air Force Drones Cut to Wide Angle

U.S. Air Force drones that serve as the aerial eyes of American combat troops in Afghanistan are about to widen their view.A multi-camera system called "Gorgon Stare" (named for the Medusa's deadly gaze, which turns onlookers to stone) will be installed on unmanned Reaper aircraft and deployed t...

November 5, 2010

Little Red Waco

It's easy on the eyes.

November 4, 2010

Close-Ups of Hartley 2

The first close-up photos of Comet Hartley 2 came in this morning from NASA's Epoxi spacecraft. Dramatic!

November 4, 2010

A Piece of Lafayette Escadrille History

November 3, 2010

NASA STS-133 mission tweetup guest Joel Glickman, who goes by @joelglick on Twitter, sends streaming live video via a mobile phone attached to his hat to his website of Phylise Banner, who goes by @Phylisebanner on Twitter, as she stands in an astronaut suit on display during the tweetup on Monday, Nov., 1, 2010 at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Tweet Tweet

Lots of chirping going on.

November 1, 2010

Too Many Astronauts?

As the space shuttle program winds down, an obvious question faces NASA: How many astronauts will it need in an era of drastically reduced flights? Only three Americans live on the space station at any one time, typically, and those slots come open just twice a year. As for a moon base or Mars miss...

November 1, 2010