/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/catapult-505.jpg)
<p>The aircraft catapult, up close and dirty.</p>
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/20110519073939topgun.jpg)
The Hollywood grapevine and other gossip networks are all atwitter over the news that Paramount Pictures is reportedly in talks with producer Jerry "Blow It Up" Bruckheimer and director Tony Scott about a sequel to their 1986 movie, "Top Gun," which made a megastar of the Grumman F-14 (and some o...
On Tuesday, the energy drink giant Red Bull said it was postponing its Stratos effort, in which Felix Baumgartener will try to break Joe Kittinger's 1960 free-fall record, until a lawsuit is settled. Courthouse News Service reported in April that Daniel Hogan was suing Red Bull for stealing his Spa...
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/20110519073939balloon-photo-228x300.jpg)
In September 1870, not long after the start of the Franco-Prussian War, the city of Paris was under siege by Prussian soldiers. By the 19th, the German army had blocked all communication into or out of the city. There was nothing worse, wrote French journalist Francisque Sarcey, than to "live cut o...
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/darack-shuttle-flash.jpg)
Adventures of a first-time shuttle photographer.
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/Roosevelt-505.jpg)
<p>Not exactly Air Force One, but...</p>
Virgin Galactic's suborbital spaceship, the VSS Enterprise, made its first piloted free flight and landing yesterday in Mojave, California. Pete Siebold was at the controls.
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/20110519073938WMAP-age-of-universe-600.jpg)
With the chill of fall in the air it's that time of year when we're reminded of turning leaves, football, and the fact that the known universe looks like a Thanksgiving cornucopia.Cosmologists have come up with this graphic to convey how the universe formed, expanded, cooled, and, more recently (on...
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/Noble%20Eagle-505.jpg)
<p>An ongoing mission on the home front.</p>
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka are due to launch to the space station at 7:10 P.M., U.S. Eastern time today, from the Baikonur launch center in Kazakhstan. Fellow astronaut Ron Garan is at Baikonur with Kelly, providing live commentary via his...
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/NASA%20Dryden%20F-16-505.jpg)
<p>ACAT is an enlightening idea.</p>
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/20110519073938bexus_balloon_L-300x300.jpg)
In the wake of several misleading news headlines, researchers at Cranfield University in the U.K. have had to set the record straight: No, they're not looking for aliens in Earth's atmosphere.But they are looking for microbes floating around in the stratosphere, at altitudes up to 22 miles. The...
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/solarwalk.flash.jpg)
Scale models of the planets are popping up in cities and parks all over the country.
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/first%20cargo%20flight%20100th%20anniv-505.jpg)
<p>It was silky smooth.</p>
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/20110519073938Slick-Airways2.jpg)
Alex Spencer, curator of British aircraft and military flight materiél at the National Air and Space Museum, started his career some 20 years ago as a lowly intern. One morning, as he was riding the shuttle out to the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Suitland, Maryl...
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/Mirage%20F1M-505.jpg)
<p>A high speed trompe-l'oeil.</p>
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/20110519073937chang-e-1_moon_01.jpg)
China's ambitions in space are often exaggerated and held up as a threat to U.S. preeminence in the field, mostly as a scare tactic to shake more money for NASA out of Congress. A lot of the huffing and puffing you can safely ignore. But the Chinese have made solid progress over the last decade in ...
Page 208 of 320
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/20110519074908Capital.jpg)
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/5c/2d/5c2dce11-cd6d-4ac3-947b-d824a4b5c518/20110519073937100303-f-2907c-632-jfg.jpg)