Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Air & Space Magazine

HASS doesn't fly so much as fall with style, just like the spacecraft it emulates

The Drone That Mimics Spaceships

Want to test communications during atmospheric reentry without risking your spaceplane? There’s a drone for that.

While airline pilots must retire at age 65, there is no mandatory retirement age for general aviation pilots.

Flying Through the Golden Years

A new study looks at the relation between medication use and accidents involving older pilots.

None

Tanker Practice

Pilots with the 13th and 14th Fighter Squadrons fly alongside a KC-135 Stratotanker over Japan to maintain tanker qualifications.

None

Ice Trails

France’s Pleiades satellite eyed this supply caravan traveling by skis and tractors for 1000 kilometers to the Concordia research station on the Antarctic coast last January.

TWA carried Pope John Paul II on his visits to the United States in 1979, 1987, and 1995 (shown here) on aircraft dubbed Shepherd I. Company lore notes that “TWA” can also stand for “traveling with angels.”

The Pope’s Laundry and Other Tales of Papal Travels

TWA was Pope John Paul II’s ride during his first visit to the United States in 1979.

Nothing beats homemade.

Marines, Fire Up Your Printers!

Why haul spare parts into battle if you can just print them?

None

LOX Fill Up

An F-16 Fighting Falcon gets a liquid oxygen fill up from Senior Airman Austin Boyd of the 138th Fighter Wing.

A view over Jupiter’s south pole from NASA's Juno spacecraft.

A Vision for Planetary Science in 2050

We need to dream, and to boldly go where no one has gone before.

None

Exit Tunnel

Elton W. Miller, the chief of aerodynamics at Langley Research Center, stands in the exit cone of a wind tunnel in 1927 gazing at the Sperry M-1 Messenger.

Harrison "Jack" Schmitt on the moon, December 1972 -- one of the last photos taken on the lunar surface. Is it time to go back?

To the Moon in 2026!

A goal for the nation’s 250th birthday?

None

Heritage Flight

Even if dark matter life exists, we may never be able to see the forest or the trees.

Could Alien Life Be Hidden All Around Us?

Thoughts about dark matter biology and a shadow biosphere.

Your briefcase goes in back, and there’s no need to tip.

Are Dubai’s Drone Taxis For Real?

Passenger drone service is poised to begin, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions.

None

Dying, Beautiful Sun

A star very much like our sun continues its demise by casting out great layers of gas in this image from the Hubble Space Telescope.

None

Tropical Sediment

This image from the Landsat 8 satellite shows Bermuda shortly after Hurricane Gonzalo passed over, kicking of visible plumes from the ocean floor.

TRAPPIST-1 and family.

When it Comes to New Planets, Expect the Unexpected

Unfortunately, the TRAPPIST-1 planets are not the likeliest places to search for life.

An artist's conception of a watery surface on TRAPPIST-1f. For now, this is just a guess.

How Venus Could Help Us Understand the New TRAPPIST-1 Planets

And vice versa

Four the next two years, Apollo 11’s Command Module Columbia and one-of-a-kind artifacts from the Apollo era will travel the United States.

Apollo 11 Moonship To Go On Tour

For the next two years, the Command Module Columbia and other artifacts will travel the United States.

A lunar mining operation, as envisioned by NASA in the 1990s.

Cislunar Space: The Next 30 Years

United Launch Alliance has a vision.

None

Swirling Jupiter

NASA’s Juno mission team is letting the public take control of the spacecraft’s camera. Here’s one beautiful shot by Alex Mai. More are being added here all the time.

Page 55 of 320