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Air & Space Magazine

Apollo astronauts -- and a couple of visiting cosmonauts -- at a backyard party in Houston in 1970. Note Pete Conrad (wearing a tie) and Jim McDivitt (behind him and to his right) both holding cigarettes.

When NASA Told Its Astronauts to Quit Smoking

Even in 1959, it was considered bad for PR.

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Rent-a-Helo Parking Lot

New Mexico Air National Guard AH-64 Apaches make a refueling stop at Las Cruces airport.

NASA astronaut Mike Fincke uses the amateur radio on board the International Space Station to talk with crew at the Palmer Research Station in Antarctica in 2004.

Got a Ham Radio? Call an Astronaut

With new upgrades, you can even videochat as the ISS orbits overhead.

Just another day at the office: Bill Dana with the HL-10 lifting body in 1968, as a B-52 flies overhead.

Test Pilot Bill Dana’s Worst Fear: Embarrassing Himself in Front of his Peers

Flying the X-15 and HL-10 was nothing compared to facing his fellow test pilots.

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Star Survivor

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory recently found evidence of a companion star that survived the blast of a nearby supernova explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

The Big Guy is back. We're going to need some F-15s and HALO jumpers.

Kadena Air Base: We Could Take Godzilla

The Air Force’s largest combat wing is ready to master the mayhem

Artist's conception of Kepler 186-f. Is it habitable? Hard to say.

Confirming Life On Other Planets Will be Tough—From Earth

It may even be impossible.

Globemaster Inspection

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Liberator En Route

This photo, from the San Diego Air and Space Museum archive, is from the collection of Sam Gotwalt, a radio operator on a B-24 Liberator during World War II.

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Sunflowers in Space

A young sunflower plant grows aboard the International Space Station.

Airfields in Alaska's Aleutian chain (pictured is Tanaga) started getting steel mat runways in 1942. Marston was better than mud, but a hard landing could bounce a small fighter 30 feet, and heavy bombers made the mat ride up in waves.

These Portable Runways Helped Win the War in the Pacific

Low-tech and still used today, “Marston Mats” were among the most important inventions of World War II.

Both on the ground (volunteer satellite trackers in Pretoria, South Africa, above) and in the air, volunteers watched the skies for the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Moonwatch Network.

Pilots—Watch the Skies!

In the 1960s, as part of a Smithsonian project, airline pilots acted as lookouts for satellites, meteors, and UFOs.

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Eagles at Dusk

Two F-15 Strike Eagles at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.

U.S. Army helicopters pour machine-gun fire into the tree line to cover the advance of South Vietnamese ground troops as they attack a Viet Cong camp 18 miles north of Tay Ninh, near the Cambodian border, in March 1965.

Vietnam: A Photographic History

Unforgettable images from the AP photographers who covered the war in Southeast Asia.

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Training in a Vacuum

European Space Agency astronaut and Italian Air Force officer Sam Cristoforetti will be headed to the International Space Station later this year. She posted this photo of her in a Russian Sokol spacesuit inside a vacuum chamber to her Twitter account (@AstroSamantha).

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, one of several NASA missions up for extension.

NASA’s Extended Science Missions in Peril

When it comes to keeping spacecraft going, when is enough enough?

A Remotely Piloted Aircraft training simulation at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.

Drone Pilots Find it Hard to Balance Warfighting With Personal Lives

A new GAO report highlights the stresses that UAV pilots face.

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Raptor in the Mist

Artist's concept of Kepler-186f

Kepler-186f: The Most Earthlike Planet Yet

This one is the same size as our world, and may have water on its surface.

Apollo 11's tickertape parade, New York City.

In 1969, One Nation Refused a Visit by the First Moonwalkers

Why Hungary spurned the Apollo 11 astronauts

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