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Air & Space Magazine

Doug Hurley, Karen Nyberg, and son Jack walk in Red Square a few weeks before her launch to the space station in May 2013.

The Astro-Couple

In the rarest of jobs, it’s even more rare for your spouse to be an astronaut, too.

NanoMap researchers follow a drone as it navigates through a forest.

Drones Navigate on the Fly, Without Consulting a Map

Avoiding obstacles is still a tricky business for autonomous aircraft.

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Astronauts Play Zero-G Badminton, Film it In 360

Another space first.

The first Falcon Heavy launch from Cape Canaveral, February 6, 2018.

SpaceX Just Took Us to a Tipping Point

Reflections on yesterday’s Falcon Heavy launch from a space veteran.

Humanity’s progress into air and space is dramatically illustrated by artist Bob McCall. Does the Moon exist to aid our progress into space?

The Lunar Anthropic Principle

Is humanity destined to live on the Moon?

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Elon Musk Is Having Fun

Today’s launch of the Falcon Heavy, if it succeeds, will be one of the most important space developments in years.

Underground ice exposed on a steep Martian slope appears bright blue in this enhanced-color view from NASA's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera in Mars orbit.

Martian Ice Cliffs Make a Tempting Destination

Robotic missions and human expeditions should rank these newly discovered features high on their list of possible landing sites.

F-22 Raptors from the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, fly over a Washington Redskins vs. Dallas Cowboys football game in 2006.

The Aerial Game: How Football and Aviation Grew Up Together

America’s favorite game and its greatest invention are more connected than you’d think.

Debris from space shuttle Columbia streaks across the sky over Tyler, Texas, February 1, 2003.

Tragedy Over Texas

A new book details the loss of space shuttle Columbia 15 years ago, and the heroic search operation that followed.

An F-100D—the same aircraft in the National Air and Space Museum collection—flies over the Mekong Delta, circa 1968.

The Battle of Bien Hoa Air Base

50 years after the start of the Tet Offensive, F-100 pilots remember the attack.

Introduced in 1930, the all-metal Northrop Alpha could carry six passengers in a comfortable cabin, but the pilot remained exposed to the elements.

The Rebirth of “America by Air”

The National Air Space Museum transforms the way it tells the story of air travel.

Watching the latest Star Wars movie on the space station, December 2017.

Tales of the Space Explorers

2017 was a banner year for astronaut memoirs.

The aircraft shows traces of multiple sets of U.S. markings including the aircraft's pre-war paint scheme, and the wartime haze-blue that was applied in the days following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Museum’s Only Surviving Aircraft From Pearl Harbor Is Now on Display

In 1941, this cargo plane went into combat.

Back in 2007, the real moon seemed reachable. It didn’t turn out to be so easy.

And the Google Lunar XPRIZE Goes to… No One

Five teams stuck out Google’s contest to spur private investment in lunar exploration to the end, but none will meet the March 31 deadline.

The MinION, a hand-held DNA sequencer.

We Just Got Closer to Having a Real-Life Tricorder

In the high Arctic, Canadian researchers try out a promising new approach to life detection.

David Givens and Bob Chartrand, archeologists studying Smith's Field in Jamestown, Virginia, use this DJI Phantom 4 to get high-resolution images of the site.

Drones Help to Map Historic Jamestown

Archeologists at Virginia’s 17th-century settlement have new ways to study old things.

Martian methane as detected during the planet's northern summer. Yellow-red areas show higher concentrations in the atmosphere, blue-purple lower concentrations.

Martian Methane Varies with the Seasons

And microbial activity could be the reason.

Part of a Lunokhod-2 panorama taken on the moon in 1973.

The Day a Soviet Moon Rover Refused to Stop

A formerly secret report details the triumphs and setbacks of an early lunar mission.

B-29s drop bombs over Yokohama, Japan, May 1945.

Why Wars Happen

An interactive exhibit at Washington state’s Flying Heritage and Combat Armor Museum explores the tough question.

An artist’s conception of a visitor from another galaxy: 'Oumuamua, an asteroid just passing through.

It Came From Another Galaxy

A peculiar, cigar-shaped asteroid turned out to be an interstellar visitor.

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