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Air & Space Magazine

Artist's conception of the SpaceX Dragon 2 vehicle.

Boeing, SpaceX Win NASA Commercial Crew Award

The companies will work toward flying astronauts to the space station by 2017.

Friends and rivals Steve Hinton (left) and Bill “Tiger” Destefani have both flown Destefani’s Mustang Strega to National Air Racing championships.

Reno Crowd Agrees: “Best Race I Ever Saw!”

The Kid won it, but it was the Old Man of Air Racing who gave the fans a finish they’ll never forget.

Computer-generated view of Mars, based on data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter.

India’s Mangalyaan Spacecraft Closes In On Mars

With hopes to become the third agency to orbit the Red Planet.

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Shocking Arms

This composite image of galaxy NGC 4258 shows two spiral arms that intersect its plane. The x-rays, in blue, were imaged by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory; the radio waves in purple were imaged by the Very Large Array; the optical light in blue and yellow was imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope; and finally the red is infrared light imaged by the Spitzer Space Telescope. Recently astronomers have discovered shock waves in the arms, perhaps created by jets from the galaxy’s supermassive black hole.

Jan Nagórski (second from left) onboard a ship bound for the Arctic in August 1914.

The First Arctic Flight—in 1914

A little-known Polish aviator got there more than a decade before Byrd and Amundsen.

Europa’s surface as seen by NASA’s Galileo probe, with a prominent double-ridge system running from the lower left to the upper right. The feature could function similarly to a mid-oceanic ridge on Earth.

More Signs That Europa Could Be Habitable

Researchers see plate tectonic activity on a distant moon.

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All Aboard the Aussie Airline

Quantas, the second oldest airline in the world, started service in 1920. Above is one of its first airports in Charleville, Queensland, Australia.

The Enterprise studio model was suspended from above while on display in the 80s and 90s.

Star Trek’s U.S.S. Enterprise to Boldly Go Back to the Workshop

A 49-year-old pop cultural artifact gets a much-needed restoration.

The U.S. Air Force Academy chapel is a modernist tribute to both aircraft design and the Colorado mountains.

“Re-Blued” at the U.S. Air Force Academy

A quick, inspiring visit to the Academy’s campus in Colorado Springs

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Martian Path

The Mars Curiosity rover looks back at its tracks on August 4, 2014, after it reaches a sandy spot called Hidden Valley.

Success story: Artist's depiction of the Planetary Resources Arkyd-101 space telescope.

Space Crowdfunding: What’s the Secret?

Winners and losers among the space start-ups.

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“The hangar wall was Crossfield’s.”

On this day in 1954, U.S. Air Force test pilot Scott Crossfield – who’s on our list of best all-time pilots - suffered an engine failure in an early North American F-100 Super Sabre and landed safely on the ramp at Edwards AFB, California. “I then proceeded to violate a cardinal rule of aviation: never try tricks with a compromised airplane,” wrote Crossfield in his autobiography.

“The F-100 was still rolling at a fast clip, coming up fast on the NACA ramp, when I made my poor decision….I would snake the stricken F-100 right up the ramp and bring it to a stop immediately in front of the NACA hangar. This trick, which I had performed so often in the Skyrocket, was a fine touch. After the first successful dead-stick landing in an F-100, it would be fitting.”

….“The plane slowed, but not quite enough. I was still inching ahead ponderously, like a diesel locomotive. I hit the brakes a fourth time—and my foot went clear to the floorboards. The hydraulic fluid was exhausted. The F-100 rolled on, straight between the yawning hangar doors!”

The F-100 impacted, giving us the iconic photo. The aircraft was quickly repaired and no harm was done to Crossfield’s career, save that fellow test pilot Chuck Yeager often teased: “The sonic wall was mine. The hangar wall was Crossfield’s.”

A still image from “Found at Sea”

NASA Touts Space Station Benefits in New Video Series

Watch how some space experiments can help people on Earth.

Sawn slab of NWA5000, a meteorite identified as coming from the Moon. Note the large white clasts (click here for the full-size photo) ; these are igneous rocks, similar to others recognized from the lunar highlands. Note the small brown grains of metal (kamacite) in the white rocks, surrounded by dark brown stains (rust). Metal grains found in igneous crustal rocks are virtually unknown in the Apollo samples.

Undocumented Alien

Meteorite NWA5000 is beautiful – but is it from the Moon?

Expose-R is fixed to the outside of the International Space Station.

New ISS Experiment Tests Organisms’ Survival Skills in Space

Biological samples will be exposed to the harsh environment outside the space station.

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Starburst Galaxy

The M82 galaxy, 12 million light-years away, produces new stars in its center 10 times faster than the entire Milky Way.

Gore Vidal and his father show how easy it is to work the controls of the Hammond Model Y.

Ten-Year-Old Gore Vidal Helped Sell the “People’s Airplane”

The future author acted as a pitchman for personal aviation in 1936.

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Time-Lapse of Cygnus Departing the Space Station

Astronauts say goodbye to their supply ship after a month in orbit.

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Blimp Christening

Goodyear introduced a new generation of blimp—the first redesign in nearly 70 years—into its fleet recently, with the christening of Wingfoot One at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company factory in Suffolk, Ohio. From the company’s announcement: “The new blimp features advanced on-board avionics and flight control systems with the capability to travel at faster speeds and hover in place. The spacious passenger gondola will provide an enhanced in-flight experience with sweeping, panoramic windows.” They’ll add two more over the next four years, while phasing out their two older blimps.

Artist's conception of lightning storms on Venus.

Alien Life May Thrive on an Exotic Kind of Carbon Dioxide

The familiar gas would have not-so-familiar properties on other planets.

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