Air & Space Magazine

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Space Scientists in Training

Planetary scientist Dan Durda was the co-leader of a two-day training course held this week at the National AeroSpace Training and Research (NASTAR) Center for scientists who want to learn the ropes of suborbital spaceflight.Durda sent back these dispatches from the NASTAR center in Pennsylvania. D...

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"Space Tourists" at Sundance

Christian Frei's film "Space Tourists" makes its North American premiere at the Sundance Film Festival next week. Frei, whose documentary about war photographer James Nachtwey was nominated for an Academy Award in 2002, followed Anousheh Ansari's visit to the space station in 2006 (she shot much of...

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A Composite Option

<p>Works for airplanes. How about spaceships?</p>

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Robotic Sample Return and Interpreting Lunar History: The Importance of Getting it Right

Deciphering the cratering history of the Moon is an important scientific problem.

The Horten Ho 229 V3 awaits restoration at the National Air and Space Museum's Garber facility.

The Luftwaffe’s Flying Wing

The Horten Ho 229 is on the short list for restoration at the Air and Space Museum.

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Cataclysmic Events on the Moon

NASA recently announced that it has down-selected three New Frontiers mission concepts for additional study.

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Kepler's First Planets

It's nice when an expensive new machine works as advertised—nicer still when that machine has the ability to revolutionize a whole field of science.At this week's meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, scientists couldn't stop gushing about the exquisite performance of NASA's K...

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"Latham Flies Into Clouds"

The early history of aviation wasn't just a matter of flying faster and farther, but higher, too. On this day 100 years ago, French aviator Hubert Latham flew an airplane above a kilometer altitude for the first time, breaking his own record by nearly 2,000 feet. He took off in his Antoinette from ...

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Orbit Rocks

<p>A mix of Mt. Everest and moon for the ISS.</p>

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What's In a Name?

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet wrote Shakespeare in 1594, but he wasn’t naming airlines, was he? Coming up with a catchy company name is hard, but it’s not that hard. The name can convey the romance of early air travel, much like “Pan American World Airways,” or “Trans World Airline...

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Going Forward in James Cameron's Wayback Machine

The gunships in the movie Avatar surely were inspired by the Bell Aerospace Textron X-22A of the mid-1960s (below), one of the many iterations of mankind's unquenchable thirst for Vertical-Takeoff-and-Landing machines. Although the tails of Avatar's VTOLS were lifted from the Bell-Boeing V-22 Ospre...

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Night Light

<p>You could read a book by these candles.</p>

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An Airplane in Antarctica in 1914

Archaeologists researching the 1911-14 Australian Antarctic Expedition have found pieces of the first airplane ever taken to a polar region. Details are at the project's blog.

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The First Overhead Blimp Shot

ESPN's website has an interesting feature on the origins of the overhead stadium shot—first used in 1960. Or was it in 1959?

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Recalling the H-Bomb that Almost Backfired

Yang Guoxiang, one of China's top test pilots, tells the story.

Left - Then: Given the troubles of 1968, says Jim Lovell, "a Bible reading was the right thing" for that Christmas in space. Right - Now: Expedition 16 played Santa for Christmas 2007. From left: Yuri Malenchenko, Peggy Whitson, and Dan Tani.

Joy to the World

First Americans to spend Christmas in space.

The author’s daughter, spellbound by a Hercules C-130, had little interest in the B-2 bomber that was entertaining an airshow crowd at the moment the photo was snapped.

Like Father, Like Daughter

A daughter begins to seek interest in airplanes.

The Air Force hopes its unmanned X-37 (in taxi tests in 2007) will take on some of the functions of the shuttle

Space Shuttle Jr.

After 2010, the only spaceplane in the U.S. inventory will be the Air Force's mysterious X-37.

Charles Lindbergh (left) and Harlan Gurney (with a Lincoln-Standard J-1, ca. 1922) would remain lifelong friends.

Slim and Bud

Meet Charles Lindbergh the barnstormer—as he interviews his oldest flying buddy.

John Magda mounting his Blue Angel Panther in 1950.

Restoration: Kentucky Panther

Grumman's first jet honors a son of the Bluegrass State.

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