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Air & Space Magazine

Adding an aircraft engine to his motorcycle made Glenn Curtiss the "fastest man alive" in 1907.

1907 Curtiss Motorcycle

Adding an aircraft engine to his motorcycle made Glenn Curtiss the “fastest man alive” in 1907.

Space station astronauts get an odd view of the full Moon.

LEO Moon

Space station astronauts get an odd view of the full Moon.

Tony Jannus, the world's first airline pilot.

Airline Pioneer

Tony Jannus, the world’s first airline pilot.

A secretive rocket company unveils its new vehicle.

Goddard’s Coming Out Party

A secretive rocket company unveils its new vehicle.

On the edge of a Martian crater.

The Cliffs of Cape St. Mary

On the edge of a Martian crater.

Von Braun at his desk at the Marshall Space Flight Center in 1960, years after writing Project Mars.

Wernher von Braun, Novelist

Half a century ago, the rocket scientist tried his hand at fiction.

The Apollo 17 astronauts photographed one of their PLSS backpacks, unceremoniously dumped on the lunar surface at mission's end.

How did the Apollo astronauts toss their spacesuits overboard?

Hint: They kept the most important part.

Footprint at Tranquility Base, July 1969.

My Favorite Artifact: The Apollo Landing Sites

This space historian’s ideal exhibit is one that’s not quite ready to open.

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STS-116: The Inside Guide

A tip sheet for following this week’s space shuttle mission.

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Martian Gushers

Claims of active flows on Mars are remarkable, but do they hold water?

A frame from the 1942 Japanese film "Battle of Pearl Harbor and the Malay Coast" showing a Nakajima B5N1 "Kate" bomber taking off from an aircraft carrier.

Are there any photos of Japan’s World War II “invasion fleet?”

How to hide thousands of airplanes.

Multiple images of Mars taken on a single afternoon in November 2006 by the Mars Observer Camera on the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. The white areas are frost.

MGS, R.I.P.

A round of applause for one of the most productive planetary missions ever.

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The “Father of the 747”

Joe Sutter talks about the famed airliner’s birth

"Glacier Girl" at the Nellis AFB Airshow, November 2006.

Glacier Girl, Interrupted

Sixty-five years after its first attempt, the restored Lightning should finally reach England next year.

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Moonbound

Who isn’t planning a lunar mission these days?

Scott hopes the duct tape reduces excess cooling airflow to the engine.

Build This Airplane for 10 Grand

How to get from the dollar store to the runway

Steam-powered catapults, expensive and difficult to maintain, are operating near their limits and will not be able to accommodate heavier aircraft planned for the future.

How Things Work: Electromagnetic Catapults

From zero to 150 in less than a second.

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Catapult Test Video

The electromagnetic launcher in action.

The sculptural relief on the terminal's façade traces the progress of aviation and its influence on society.

Then & Now

No more New Orleans cover-up

The Soviets' first atomic bomb test in 1949, in background, prompted tense aerial duels between (top to bottom) Soviet Tu-95 bombers, F-101s, and F-102s. Bottom: The blast effects of a one megaton bomb exploding over Pittsburgh.

The Thin Aluminum Line

Supersonic airplanes and a screen of radar stood ready during the cold war to avert the end of the world.

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