Mark Strauss

Mark Strauss

 

Mark Strauss is the Departments Editor at Air & Space magazine.

Boeing conducts an MQ-25 deck handling demonstration at its facility in St. Louis. The U.S. Navy intends to procure eight of the carrier-based drones by 2024.

The Navy’s Drone Fleet is Growing

Aircraft carriers are being readied for next-generation warfare that relies on unmanned aerial vehicles.

Cassini’s radar imager peered through Titan’s thick atmosphere, providing data to create a map of its surface.

Two Years After Its Demise, Cassini Yields the First Geologic Map of Titan

The global data will be useful to NASA planners preparing for a new mission to Saturn’s largest moon.

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Bethany Ray and her dog Lili prepare for UH-1N Huey training.

Flight School for Dogs

At Fairchild AFB, canines learn to be good helicopter passengers.

Soldiers use an M88A2 Hercules Recovery Vehicle to pull a truck from a deep puddle of mud during training. Soil moisture data from a NASA satellite could help prevent trucks getting stuck in the first place.

Before Getting Stuck on a Muddy Road, Check With This Satellite First

A NASA spacecraft helps Air Force drivers avoid messy, and possibly dangerous, delays.

Richard Browning launched himself from Britain’s largest aircraft carrier during the ship’s visit to Annapolis last November.

A British Marine’s Jet Suit Turns its Pilot Into a Real-Life Iron Man

A former Royal Marines reservist hopes his invention will kick off a new kind of racing.

After 36 years of service, American Airlines has retired the remaining 26 MD-80s in its fleet. The iconic single-aisle jet was built in Long Beach by McDonnell Douglas.

Having Carried More Than 87 Million Passengers, the MD-80 Heads Into Retirement

The McDonnell Douglas passenger liner once made up 44 percent of the American Airlines fleet.

Not a toy: The Shapeshifter robot, going for a roll in the robotics yard at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is in development as a transformational vehicle to explore hazardous moonscapes.

Shapeshifter, NASA’s Mighty Morphing Robot

It rolls! (And swims! And flies!)

High school students in central Texas build an RV-12. Tango Flight now has programs in six cities across the country.

From Texas to New Hampshire, Tango Flight Turns High Schoolers Into Airplane Builders

The program’s founders hope this challenging school project can jump-start careers in aviation.

Voyagers 1 and 2 are humanity's outer edge.

Voyager, Still Going After All These Years

Low on power and billions of miles from Earth, NASA’s twin spacecraft keep exploring—with a little TLC from home.

During a 2015 training flight, a C-5M Super Galaxy on final approach prepares to slam 28 tires on the runway at Dover Air Force Base. The freighter is the largest operational aircraft flown by the Air Force.

How Many Airmen Does It Take to Fix a Flat Tire on a C-5?

Fewer, thanks to an invention by an Air Force lab.

Mission co-pilot Peter O’Hare delivered medical supplies to the Bahamas and brought home evacuees.

A Korean War Cargo Plane Finds a New Mission of Mercy

After a hurricane hit the Bahamas, a C-45 shows it can still do the job it was built for.

This is only a drill, for now: Over the fictional town of Razish at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, 40 quadcopters fly in a swarm.

The U.S. Army is Looking at a New Microwave Defense Against Attacking Drones

It even has a cool name: THOR

Girl Scouts can earn badges in space sciences by learning about astronomy and recreating scientific experiments.

Girl Scouts, Now You Can Earn a Badge in Space Science

A new way to encourage young women to learn about stars and exoplanets.

Fired up: Rocket Lab launched its 25th satellite, a DARPA payload, last March.

Rocket Lab Has Launched 39 Smallsats in Two Years, In a Quest to Lower Costs

The latest mission, in August 2019, lofted four satellites for the U.S. Air Force and private companies.

Between 1968 and 1976, 459 A-7D Corsair aircraft were delivered to the U.S. Air Force.

This Veterans Group Moved a Vietnam-Era Corsair Cross-Country to a Park in Maine

Road trip for an A-7D.

IceCube used pressurized hot water to melt shafts and place sensors into the polar ice.

A Piece of IceCube Arrives at the Smithsonian

An Arctic sensor finally gets its day in the sun.

The Apollo 1 astronauts—(opposite, from left) Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee—perished in a fire during a pre-flight test on January 27, 1967.

32 Astronauts, 11 Flights

Meet the people who put their lives on the line to reach the moon.

A Harbour Air DHC-3 Otter on the beach of a remote alpine lake in Canada.

The Largest Seaplane Fleet in North America is Going All-Electric

Half a million passengers, zero emissions.

Adolf Hitler and his deputy Rudolf Hess

Eight Historical Archives That Will Spill New Secrets

Declassified records and journals to be released in coming decades will shed new light on pivotal 20th-century figures and events

Patrick Stewart on His Craft, 21st-Century Science and Robot Ethics

The actor whose leading roles in “Star Trek” and X-Men have taken him into the far future, reflects on where present-day society is headed

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