Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Air & Space Magazine

The green layer are cyanobacteria under a gypsum crust found in the desert near Carlsbad, New Mexico. Similar microbes on Mars may thrive very close to the surface.

Life Could Exist on Mars Today, Very Close to the Surface

Scientists tackle the question of what kinds of life might reside now on the Red Planet, and how we might find it.

Simpson Harbor as seen from Rabaul’s volcano observatory.

More than 70 Years Later, Rabaul’s Aerial Battleground Is Still Haunting

The “Japanese Gibraltar” was the scene of desperate fighting in the fall of 1943.

A mini-fleet of Starships wait near a Martian base in this SpaceX artist's conception.

A Million People on Mars May Not Be Wishful Thinking

But colonists would have to change their diets, and learn to eat crickets.

From left: Space History Curator Matt Shindell, National Air and Space Museum Director Ellen Stofan, iSpace Founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada, and Chief Rover Engineer John Walker with the SORATO lunar rover at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

Let’s Get Small: SORATO Rover Joins the National Air and Space Museum

Rovers just like this pint-sized marvel will roll across the lunar surface before SORATO goes on permanent display.

The Viking 2 lander rests on the Martian surface following its landing in September 1976. Questions about what exactly it found have never been put to rest, however.

The Debate Over Whether We’ve Already Found Life on Mars, Continued

Were Martian microbes inadvertently killed in their first encounter with humans?

False color ultraviolet view of the Venusian clouds as seen by Japan's Akatsuki spacecraft.

An Airship for Exploring Venus? Russia Might Get There First

Mission designers lay out their plans for Venera-D at a recent workshop in Moscow.

The Starship Mk1 vehicle stands assembled at SpaceX's facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX Hopes to Test Launch its ‘Epic’ New Steel Rocket This Fall

Elon Musk unveils the vehicle his team has been busy assembling near the Texas-Mexico border.

Workshop attendees in Vienna, not a bad place to discuss life beyond Earth.

Practicing for Mars in Israel, Ancient Lunar Life, and More Astrobiology Notes from Vienna

Scientists from German-speaking countries convened in Austria to present their latest research results.

The T-7 will replace the T-38, which is past its prime.

The Air Force’s New Training Aircraft Gets an Old and Honored Name

A nod to one of the most respected units in U.S. military history.

NASA's Lindsay Aitchison says spacesuits have been given much-improved flexibility and durability over the decades, but as seen in the speculative future of "Ad Astra," they don't look much different than they did in the Gemini era.

With the New Movie Ad Astra, James Gray and Brad Pitt Offer a “Plausible” Vision of Late-21st Century Space Travel

Shuttle astronaut Garrett Reisman helped writer-director Gray make his space adventure authentic(ish).

The patch on the left breast of Ride’s crew jacket had her first and last name per protocol, but on the workaday flightsuit she wore beneath it, the name tag was less formal: “Sally.”

Sally Ride’s Jacket, a One-of-a-Kind Artifact

What the first American woman in space wore to work.

NASA’s NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft photographed asteroid Eros up close in 2001. Looks harmless enough from here.

How Worried Should We Be About Asteroids?

A new book explains the risk, tells us about the scientists tracking near-Earth asteroids, and offers advice on how to defend the planet.

In 1945 Austria, after the German surrender, a U.S. engineer lifts the hinged canopy of a captured Bachem Ba 349 to take a look inside the cockpit.

World War II’s Worst Airplane

The product of an ambitious designer and a doomed regime, the Bachem Ba 349 Natter was a radical idea that almost worked.

It's five o’clock somewhere, and at the TWA Hotel’s Sunken Lounge, it’s also 1965, approximately.

The TWA Hotel, Design Icon From the Mad Men Era, Is Back in Business

Where else can you find a Lockheed Constellation turned into a cocktail lounge?

Munich Airport’s two-day summertime Music and Family Days celebration lures up to 25,000 visitors per day with theme-park style rides and musical performances, along with the chance to ogle modern and vintage airplanes.

Airports You’d Actually Like to Visit

Some are no longer just the beginning or end of a journey. They’re destinations unto themselves.

Keith Brunquist flies his rare Boeing YL-15 Scout over Minnesota farmland in September 2017. Boeing made only 10 pre-production models of the airplane, which it tried—unsuccessfully—to get the U.S. Army to purchase as an observation aircraft.

This Is the Only Flying YL-15 Scout in the World

And what, you ask, is a YL-15 Scout?

About to land on the Truman in the Persian Gulf during the carrier’s 2015 missions to strike ISIS, this C-2A Greyhound most likely returned to a base in Bahrain.

Delivery Service on an Aircraft Carrier

Farewell to the Grumman C-2 Greyhound, which has been running supplies at sea for more than 50 years.

NASA is designing a small rocket (artist’s impression) that will launch from Jezero Crater, bringing soil samples back to Earth.

If It Works, This Will Be the First Rocket Launched From Mars

NASA has spent decades sending probes to other planets. Now it’s trying to go the other way.

Glenn as an astronaut-in-training, in 1961. Must have been no glitches that day.

It Was John Glenn Who Popularized the Word “Glitch”

And he got it from an unlikely, although unknown, source.

Michael Lenoch, on the day in 2018 that he soloed in a T-6 Texan during his training at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas.

This C-130 Pilot Trainee Loves His Job, and Here’s Why

“When you’re working, you don’t feel like you’re working.”

Page 19 of 320