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Air & Space Magazine

Museum specialist Chris Reddersen, holding a Spirit of St. Louis model that he and his dad built while Reddersen was in elementary school, got to work on the real thing as a volunteer at the National Air and Space Museum.

Hands on History

As a restoration specialist at the National Air and Space Museum, Chris Redderson gets to work on some of the world’s most famous airplanes.

An Me 262 replica flees a Mustang near the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach. For pilots of propeller-driven airplanes, used to small differences between top speeds, jets were a shock: Me 262s were 120 mph faster than P-51s.

The First Jet Pilots

First-hand accounts from the pilots who brought us into the jet age—sometimes the hard way.

Visitors to the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center can see the restored Heinkel He 219—unassembled, but still awe-inspiring.

A Feared Nazi Night Fighter Is Being Restored 70 Years Later

The Heinkel He 219 will soon have its nose-mounted radar back.

TESS will zero in on the Earthlike planets closest to home.

Our New Planet Hunter

Around one of 20 million stars, TESS will find something that looks like us.

In 1985, customers flocked to see the B-17 Lacey Lady propped atop a gas station.

Once a Roadside Attraction, This WW2 Bomber May Get a Third Life

How a B-17 came to roost in Oregon.

The author uses a grease pencil to note pallets delivered to a cruiser in the Atlantic, where she deployed with Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light 46 in 2011.

What Keeps Pilots Up at Night

Flying in the dark can play tricks on your senses.

Waterman, far left, takes a break with her fellow computers at Mount Wilson Observatory in California during the 1910 Solar Union conference.

More Than a Century Ago, Astronomer Phoebe Waterman Defied Her Doubters

Told she couldn’t succeed in science, one woman proved there are many ways to leave a legacy.

The Starliner and Crew Dragon are both expected to make their debut this year.

Astronauts, Your Ride’s Here!

SpaceX and Boeing get ready to introduce their taxi service to orbit.

NASA flight controllers celebrate the return of Apollo 15 in 1971.

Memories of Apollo

A space program veteran reflects on the teamwork that put men on the moon.

The B-52 bomber, still airborne after all these years.

When Bombers Ruled

A new book examines the power of the Strategic Air Command during the cold war.

Keeping it clean: Technicians prepare the Mars Insight lander for its trip to another world.

It’s Time to Rethink the Way We Practice Safe Solar System Exploration

The National Academies weigh in on planetary protection.

LRO mosaic of wide angle camera images of the near side. You can explore the surface of the Moon in detail yourself at the LROC web site.

Don’t Worry, a Lunar Return Won’t Harm the Moon

Taking advantage of lunar resources doesn’t mean smokestacks and open-pit mines.

If only life were as easy to spot as the plants on this hypothetical exoplanet.

Reading the Signs of Life

It won’t be as simple as finding a single “smoking gun.”

Cassini's Titan Radar Mapper imaged an eighth impact crater on June 21, 2011.

Where to Look for Life on Titan

Would fresh impact craters or cryovolcanoes make better targets for astrobiologists?

The Integratron in Landers, California.

New Film Tells the Story of George Van Tassel and His UFO-Inspired “Integratron”

In the 1950s, the Mojave Desert was mecca for believers in extraterrestrial visitors.

Curiosity has found what it went looking for.

Fingerprints of Martian Life

Recent discoveries by the Curiosity rover reset the debate about life on Mars.

Launch of Viking 1, May 3, 1949.

The First Rocket Built for Space

It isn’t what you think it was.

Amy Adams tries to decode an alien message in the 2016 film "Arrival."

How to Communicate with Aliens

Some interesting ideas bounced around at a recent workshop.

Lighting map of the lunar south pole. White areas are illuminated for significant fractions of the lunar day; dark areas are mostly sun shadow.

America’s Return to the Moon: A Foothold, Not Just Footprints

What’s the purpose of going to the Moon? And how can we use it?

Is there complex life on this exoplanet?

How to Test the Cosmic Zoo Hypothesis

Future space missions should be able to detect a complex biosphere on an exoplanet.

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