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Air & Space Magazine

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Musk’s One-in-a-Million Proposition

The SpaceX founder talks Martian real estate

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Facelift

Google offers to pay for a restoration of Hangar One at Moffett Field.

Rutan's 31st airplane, the mantis-like Proteus, is multi-mission but one of a kind.

A retrospective of Burt Rutan’s high-performance art

Design by Rutan

Chris Fry's Extra 330 dazzled with a low ribbon cut.

The Kids Are Trying to Crash

Remote-control models face off in the Extreme Flight Championships.

When Japanese aircraft began their assault (Nakajima B5N Kate bomber, lower right), Cornelia Fort was giving a flying lesson; she later documented the terrifying surprise in her logbook.

Cornelia Fort Wanted to Fly in Combat, But Not in a Civilian Airplane Against the Japanese at Pearl Harbor

How a vintage Interstate Cadet trainer led a modern airshow pilot on a journey to find a kindred spirit.

South African-born entrepreneur Elon Musk, 40, ended up in the United States because, he says, it's where great things happen. Musk is gambling that his company, SpaceX, can change the world with its Falcon rockets and Dragon capsules by carrying cargo, and eventually people, to orbit.

Is SpaceX Changing the Rocket Equation?

1 visionary + 3 launchers + 1,500 employees = ?

NOAA's Randy TeBeest with Lockheed WP-3D Kermit

The Hurricane Hunters

When Atlantic storms threaten, NOAA pilots answer the call.

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NASA’s Curiosity rover will try a new way of landing on another planet

Dropping in on Mars.

Voyager (here, over Southern California) took off with 7,011 pounds of fuel; when it landed, it had only 106.

From Point A to Point A

Twenty-five years ago, Burt Rutan’s Voyager became the first aircraft to make an around-the-world flight without refueling.

Veterans inside the Mercury-Redstone blockhouse from which Alan Shepard's rocket was launched: (from left) Terry Greenfield, Ike Rigell, Kelly Fiorentino, Frank Bryan, Milt Chambers, and Curly Chandler.

Light This Candle

Alan Shepard was brave enough to ride the Mercury-Redstone rocket. These guys were brave enough to launch it.

H-1 "Borp!" ("Gotcha!") Bomber-Bomber, Albania, 1981

The Other Air Forces

Humorist Bruce McCall’s small fleet of little-known aircraft.

If the Earth started out with two moons, a slow collision between them could explain our remaining moon's appearance today.

Is Earth’s moon the product of a big splat as well as a big whack?

The second-moon theory.

Pilot Bruce Moore (left) and photographer Jim Koepnick have teamed up to shoot more than 800 airplanes since 1991.

To nail the air-to-air shot, pilot and photographer have to work together like, well, this pair

Pointer and Shooter.

Popular Mechanics swooned over the Heli-Home's "luxury-camping way of life."

The Flying Winnebago

For some reason the heli-camper never really caught on.

Gilbert Hooker, right, with navigator Ron Dunn and F-4 Phantoms, on Hooker's first Vietnam cruise.

The Man My Mother Fell in Love With

When the Navy retired the Tomcat, my father went with it.

The Museum's Boeing 247-D is displayed with two sets of markings: The right side reflects its time with United Air Lines; the left, the aircraft's 1934 air racing history.

In the Museum: The Original Airliner

The Boeing 247 was the Dreamliner of its day.

U.S. Sailors ring in the new year aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) with a qualification fire of pencil flares while under way in the Pacific Ocean in the first time zone west of the International Date Line Jan. 1, 2010. Carl Vinson and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 17 are on a deployment to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class James R. Evans, U.S. Navy/Released)

Ring in the New

Carrier crews show a flare for celebration.

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Post-holiday Diet Starts at the Airport

Detroit flyers can get a head-start on resolution dieting at their top ranking healthiest airport

Space 2012: What’s Ahead

Twelve things to watch for in space next year—if the world doesn’t end

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Absolute Favorite

An astronaut candidate tries out simulated weightlessness.

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