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Air & Space Magazine

Carrier Air Wing 5 departed USS Kitty Hawk for this seven-ship formation, shot in 2007

Flights Over Fuji

Pilots can’t resist taking photos against one of the world’s most beautiful backdrops.

Robert Preston was initially charged with an assassination attempt.

The Time a Stolen Helicopter Landed on the White House Lawn

The story of Robert Preston’s wild ride.

Charles Furnas at age 28 (bending over controls), when he helped the Wrights sell their Model A biplane to the Army at Fort Myer, Virginia.

The First Airplane Passenger

The Wright brothers’ indispensable helper got a ride as a reward.

Mary Jennings Hegar flew Sikorsky HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters in Afghanistan.

She Just Wanted to Fly

A combat rescue pilot saved lives in Afghanistan while facing challenges to serve at home.

“Andy,” a lunar rover designed by Astrobotic and Carnegie Mellon University, takes a test drive at a cement plant near Pittsburgh last year.

Will Anyone Win the Google Lunar XPRIZE?

One giant leap for robot kind.

The planet’s surface was warmer in 2016 than in any year since record-keeping began in 1880. But figuring out Earth’s precise temperature today is tougher than measuring how it changes.

Taking Earth’s Temperature

A single, precise number is harder to come up with than you’d think.

Patent # 9,305,280 is a paper concept, and maybe always will be.

An Airborne Drone Center is Now on the Amazon Wishlist

The online retail giant re-inflates an old idea.

SpaceWorks, a NASA contractor, has proposed Mars transports and studies of “induced torpor” for their passengers.

Sleeping Their Way to Mars

For astronauts on long space voyages, the safest way to travel may be in induced hibernation.

Ben Epps stands with the Epps-Huff II, long thought to be Georgia’s first airplane. It never flew. The handwriting suggests 1907 as the year aviation began in Georgia.

The Birth of Flight in Georgia

Georgians are justly proud of the day Ben Epps first flew his airplane. But for 100 years, they’ve been proud of the wrong day.

At a Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Discovery Station, the author teaches young visitors how a satellite works.

Stories My Granddad Told Me

His tales of WW2 made me appreciate what’s really in the National Air and Space Museum.

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Island Beauty

NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough took this image of the Bahamas from the International Space Station.

Artist's depiction of rotating disc galaxies in the early Universe (right) and the present day (left). Galaxies in the early Universe were less influenced by dark matter (shown in red). As a result the outer parts of distant galaxies rotate more slowly than comparable regions of galaxies in the local Universe.

Where Was Dark Matter in the Early Universe?

Observations of early-forming galaxies shows they’re pretty…normal. And that’s unexpected.

The eagle is about to win this round.

Attack of the Drone-Snatching Eagles

A natural solution to a growing threat

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Thunderbolt Research

Research pilots at Langley Research Center stand in front of A P-47 Thunderbolt in 1945.

The Caltech rocket group engineered the first American rocket-assisted takeoff, of a light Ercoupe airplane, in 1941.

How the “Suicide Squad” Turned Into One of the World’s First Rocket Companies

Aerojet celebrates its 75th anniversary.

Earthrise over the Moon, as seen by the Japanese Kaguya spacecraft. Real views of inspirational places are superior to even the best artistic imaginings.

If You Build It, They Will Come

Forty-five years after the last Moon landing, it’s time to stop talking and start doing again.

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Dust Up

An MV-22 Osprey kicks up some dirt in Djibouti during a joint exercise last January.

A gravitational lens telescope, as envisioned by Claudio Maccone in his 2009 book Deep Space Flight and Communications.

The Ultimate Space Telescope Would Use the Sun as a Gravitational Lens

An old idea gets new attention.

A view from Mission: ISS, the best space-related VR yet.

Space Station VR Experience Released for Oculus Rift

For now you’ll need one of those pricey headsets, but other versions are on the way.

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Cluster of Clusters

At least three clusters of young stars make up NGC 6357, pictured here in X-rays, infrared, and visible light.

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