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Air & Space Magazine

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Orion: the Trailer

A preview of NASA’s coming movie…uh…launch.

An artist’s image of the IXV about to reenter the atmosphere

Europe’s Proto-Spaceplane Gets Ready To Fly

The IXV will pave the way for future reusable spacecraft.

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Pillars of Nurseries

The pillars of dust and gas in the Carina Nebula are forming new stars at their tips.

A human T-Cell

A Space Station Experiment for Astronauts—And Everyone Else

A current ISS study tackles the mystery of immune system suppression in microgravity.

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Wing Twister

NASA tested this Oblique Wing Research Aircraft in the late 1970s to find out the benefits and drawbacks to pivoting wings. But “the unpleasant flying characteristics… at extreme wing-sweep angles may have discouraged aircraft designers from adopting this configuration.”

Frantz (left) and Quénault with their Voison

The First Aerial Combat Victory

Airplane vs. airplane over France in 1914

Image of the cliffs at Terra Sabaea on Mars. The description was recently translated into Icelandic and posted to the Beautiful Mars Iceland Tumblr.

Describing Mars to the Rest of the World

NASA’s new translation project introduces the Red Planet in Icelandic, Esperanto, and more.

Start at the Apollo 11 landing site, end at the North Pole.

A Road Trip on the Moon

Sightseeing tips for a lunar vacation

Air America flew everything from the iconic Bell UH-1 (here, a Huey in descending hover in Vietnam, circa late 1960s) to Cessnas to the CH-54 Skycrane—more than 30 different aircraft in all.

“Just Fly This Sumbitch Myself”

Air America’s pilots liked danger—and a bit of fun.

A 1982 graduate of Groom Lake, the YF-117A peeks from a heavily guarded hangar at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada.

Area 51’s Black Jets

The highly classified inventions tested at Groom Lake are some of the greatest aircraft ever flown.

The Textron AirLand Scorpion taxis to the hangar after landing at Washington’s Reagan National Airport (DCA) on September 13.

How Did This Mean-Looking Jet Get Permission to Land In Washington D.C.?

For one thing, it left its weapons at home.

Fluffy bathrobes—and gourmet meals.

Etihad Airlines’ Luxury Suite in the Sky

With your own gourmet chef, too.

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A Nice Day for an Air Show

Aviation fans gather at Hill Air Force Base in Utah for the Warriors Over the Wasatch Air Show in June 2014, while a P-51 Mustang and F-16 Fighting Falcon pass overhead.

Standing in front of WhiteKnightTwo, George Whitesides addresses a crowd at Virgin Galactic's hangar at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

The Making of SpaceShipTwo

George Whitesides will lead Virgin Galactic’s first customers into space.

The USS Makin Island on pre-deployment training ops off the Southern California coast. “We can move this 40-thousand-ton warship with the same power provided by our ship diesel generators that generate electricity to drive my [air conditioning], my lights, my television, my communications,” says Captain Holsey.

How the Navy’s Going Green

The USS Makin Island’s hybrid-electric propulsion is the future of aircraft carriers.

Will life be the same everywhere?

To Find Alien Life, Expect the Unexpected

Highlights of a Library of Congress symposium on first contact with extraterrestrial life

While commercial companies serve the International Space Station (upper left), NASA plans to use the heavy-lift Space Launch System for missions to the moon and asteroids—and eventually Mars.

Bigger Than Saturn, Bound for Deep Space

Part space shuttle, part Apollo, the Space Launch System will be the most powerful rocket ever built. Will it be the best?

The P-80 won the name Shooting Star for its speed: It was the first jet to exceed 500 mph in level flight.

Shooting Star

From Lockheed’s famed design chief Kelly Johnson, the first U.S. jet to fight.

The Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator is designed to enable large payloads to be safely landed on Mars.

Tools for Martian Survival

A test program for two planets.

The Mast Camera on NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity captures the ruggedness of the Martian surface in this February 2014 shot of Dingo Gap in Gale Crater. Astronauts would find a barren world with average temperatures of -67 degree Fahrenheit and dust storms that last for months.

The Mars Dilemma

When astronauts finally reach Mars, will they be able to land?

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