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Air & Space Magazine

Sand grains or microbes? In this case, it's a cluster of E. coli bacteria. But it can be hard to tell, so we'll need discerning new instruments.

A New Tool to Detect Alien Biochemistry

Life detection on Mars and the icy moons of the outer Solar System looks more and more feasible.

75th Anniversary of Victory in World War II

Looking back at the war that shaped a generation, and changed aviation forever.

Among the veterans' stories archived at the Library of Congress are narratives of flying “the Hump” in World War II. The Curtiss C-46 Commando was a mainstay for those operations, conducted over the Himalayan foothills where there was no emergency landing strip.

Flying the Hump: A Veteran Remembers

One of many stories in the Library of Congress searchable archive of war reminiscences.

The humble slime mold, physarum polycephalum.

The Astrobiology of Alien Worlds

A comprehensive review of life as we know it—and may not know it.

In 2015 the Cassini spacecraft transmitted a tantalizing infrared view of Titan’s surface, exposing lakes.

Exploring the Seas and Skies of Titan

From the Director of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum

Powell's American Expeditionary Forces ID card.

Uncover Aviation History by Helping to Transcribe Smithsonian Collections

The papers of pioneering pilot William Powell is a good place to start.

“Karl” in flight over Afghanistan.

The Day We Took Out 23 Tanks

In Operation Desert Storm, the A-10 Warthog was primitive, but it got the job done.

The Mitchell U-2 Superwing at the National Air and Space Museum features a Cuyuna UL2-11 two-cylinder, 35-hp engine. Its builder, Frank Marsh, first flew the ultralight in 1987 and donated it to the Museum in 1989.

The Mitchell U-2 Superwing Showed How Versatile an Ultralight Can Be

Plus, you could build it yourself.

The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s P-3C Orion 5071 became stranded for two months in Vietnam.

In Times of Pandemic, Even Refueling Becomes a Tricky Problem

A Vietnamese airport offers a safe port in the COVID-19 storm.

The 100-megawatt Perovo Solar Power Station in Ukraine is one of the largest photovoltaic facilities in the world. SETI researchers theorize that if alien civilizations were to use even larger solar facilities, scientists on Earth could pick up tell-tale signs from the reflected light.

Not Just Radio Messages: NASA Expands the Search for Extraterrestrial Cultures

A new project will search for technosignatures that might indicate the presence of advanced alien civilizations.

They’re off! The start of the 2017 Biplane Class championship race was the last time Jake Stewart’s clipped-wing Pitts Bad Mojo (number 10) would be so close to the Mong Sport Phantom, flown by Andrew Buehler and created by Tom Aberle.

Racing’s Fastest Biplane Is About to Face New Challengers

At the National Championship Air Races, the Biplane Class pits cutting edge against classic.

Embry-Riddle professor Carolina Anderson with three generations of aircraft on campus. The daughter of a pilot, she flies her own daughters to work with her, hoping to nurture a third flying generation in her own family.

What Are U.S. Airlines Missing? Women Pilots

Despite recruiting efforts, the number of women in airline cockpits has increased in the last decade by a dismal one percent.

Sailors aboard the USS Missouri watch as dignitaries correct an error on the Japanese copy of the Instrument of Surrender. Many of the sailors had spent days cleaning and readying the ship for the pageant that 75 cameramen recorded for history.

Final Mission: Staging Japan’s Surrender

General Douglas MacArthur was a war hero—and an old soldier who knew how to put on a show.

Space shuttle Discovery blasts off for orbit on September 29, 1988—almost three years after the Challenger accident—with a system that would, for the first time, enable the crew of five astronauts to escape the orbiter in case of emergency during ascent.

They Said It Wasn’t Possible to Escape the Space Shuttle. These Guys Showed It Was.

But the circumstances had to be just right.

Amelia Earhart on the wing of her Lockheed Model 10-E Electra at Lae, New Guinea, July 1937.

Aviation’s Most Wanted List

The airplanes and artifacts that museum curators dream of finding.

Had they not built the airplanes themselves, RV-8 owners might believe their fine-handling, aerobatic two-seater was heaven sent. Bob Ellis enjoys his handiwork on a fine October day. In 2012, Ellis’s RV-8 won the British Light Aircraft Association’s award for best kitbuilt aircraft.

How the RV-8 Became One of the Most Popular Kitplanes of All Time

Twenty-five years ago, Richard VanGrunsven trusted his instincts, and thousands of home builders are glad he did.

An artist’s conception of Dragonfly on the surface of Titan. The real article will not launch until 2026, and arrives at Titan’s Shangri-La dune sea eight years later, in 2034.

Dragonfly Is the First Aircraft Built for the Outer Solar System

NASA returns to Saturn’s largest moon with a rover that can fly.

The surface of Venus (shown here in an artist's conception, with erupting volcanoes) is too hot for life. But what about the clouds above?

Microbes in the Clouds of Venus

New insights on life in an unlikely place

The SN5 prototype goes airborne over Boca Chica, August 4, 2020.

A Prototype Starship Hops a Little Closer to the Moon

Tuesday’s test in south Texas capped a very good week for SpaceX.

The Mars 2020 mission departing Earth, courtesy of an Atlas V rocket.

Mars Exploration Takes a Major Leap

Sample return and life detection are on the near horizon.

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