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Air & Space Magazine

Setting up to recreate a famous Raiders of the Lost Ark fight scene in Mississippi, 2014.

Raiders of the Lost Ark’s Fake Flying Wing

After 33 years, two amateur auteurs wrap their boyhood Raiders remake by blowing up the Nazi airplane of their dreams.

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Lunar Topography

Scientists created this colorful topographic map of the moon from data from NASA’s GRAIL mission. The gravity anomalies shown in blue are believed to be ancient lava-flooded rift zones buried beneath volcanic plains.

An F-84 experimental parasite fighter attaches to a B-36

Return of the Parasites

DARPA wants new tech for an old idea.

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Marking the Drop

A C-130 Hercules heads towards the smoke marking its drop zone during a training exercise.

Physicist Kip Thorne on the set of Interstellar.

Interstellar’s Scientific Fact-Checker

A talk with physicist Kip Thorne.

Signs of terrestrial life on Mars: Curiosity's rover tracks.

A New Way to Search for Martian Life

Isotopic analysis may help us separate native organisms from Earthly contamination.

Orion arrives at the launch gantry on November 12, 2014.

Time-Lapse of Orion’s Trip to the Launch Pad

The new spaceship gets one step closer to its December 4 debut.

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Endeavour Comes Back to Earth

Space shuttle Endeavour touches down for a night landing at the end of STS-72 in 1996.

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First Landing on a Comet

After two and a half suspenseful days, Rosetta mission scientists ended up a happy bunch.

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Taxiing KC-135 Stratotanker

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A Mule at Rest

An H-24 Army Mule Helicopter sits on the runway in this undated San Diego Air and Space Museum archived photograph.

A view of the Earth-Moon system from the Chang’E 5 Test mission. The large dark area near the center of the Moon’s far side is Mare Moscoviense.

China is Now Positioned to Dominate the Moon

What are they up to?

Planets are forming around the star HL Tau in this image taken by astronomers at ALMA.

Incredible Image Shows Never-Before-Seen Detail in a Solar System Being Born

This will be the go-to picture for planetary formation in astronomy textbooks.

Chicago O'Hare, already one of the busiest airports in the world, will only get busier.

The Future of Air Travel, as Seen from MIT

An expert panel looks ahead to the airline experience of 2030, with more passengers and fewer (if any) pilots.

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“Dance of the Plankton”

This satellite image shows ocean phytoplankton, which attracts the many types of sea life that prey on it. Scientists observe the predator-prey cycles (which phytoplankton ecologist Mike Behrenfeld calls the “Dance of the Plankton”) each year to see how tiny changes in the environment can impact the oceans.

The F-35C made its first carrier landing on November 3, 2014.

Navy F-35 Makes Its First Carrier Landing, With an Audience

New military airplanes don’t come along as often as they used to.

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Calling it a Day

The fleet from various strike groups and U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps aircraft operation in formation after a joint exercise.

SpaceShipTwo shows its characteristic “wing feathering” in a gliding test over Mojave, California in May 2011.

SpaceShipTwo Suffers Fatal Accident During a Test Flight

One pilot is lost; investigation is under way.

The lunar test capsule, back on Earth

Chinese Test Capsule Returns from Moon

Mission paves the way for a future lunar sample return.

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Spooky Solar Face

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the sun in the Halloween spirit earlier this month when its bright, active regions took on the shape of a jack-o-lantern.

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