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Air & Space Magazine

Every light a drone

Night of 500 Drones

Is this the first step to flying billboards?

This near-infrared, color mosaic from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows the Sun glinting off of Titan's north polar seas near the 11 o'clock position at upper left. Titan has environmental conditions close to those that would make silicon life plausible, but silicon itself is lacking.

A Step toward Silicon Life?

Scientists have found that microbes can make chemical bonds that might—conceivably—play a role in alien biology.

Astronaut David Saint-Jacques is due to test the Astroskin onboard the station in two years.

Canadian Astronaut Will Test a New Bio-Monitor Shirt in Space

Space doctors hope the “Astroskin” can replace some of those messy wires and electrodes.

Add a few special effects, and a tropical island turns into hell.

Venus, By Way of Hawaii

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Beating Star

A neutron star at the center of this gaseous cloud—the remnants of the supernova it exploded in when it died long ago—still spins rapidly and sends out regular pulses.

Starshade occulters are among the technologies that could point us to a real Earth twin in the 2020s.

Finding Earth 2.0 Will Be Harder Than We Thought

No such discovery can be expected within this decade.

The P-51 Hell-er-Bust at sunset in Nampa, Idaho.

Air & Space Quiz: Test Your Knowledge of the P-51

A drone from Alibaba, the Chinese equivalent of Amazon, lifts off.

Drone Deliveries Go Global

China introduces rural service, with other countries not far behind.

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Falcon Salute

An F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot waves to the boom operator during a mid-air refueling.

NASA photographer Bill Ingalls caught this long exposure view of a Soyuz rocket lifting off from Baikonur with half the Expedition 50 crew onboard.

Chinese Astronauts Land on the Same Day That ISS Astronauts Launch

Soyuz up, Shenzhou down.

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Planetary Shadow

During Operation Enduring Freedom, these sailors aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower took time from maritime security operations to drop into the north Arabian Sea.

Everyone in the Ocean!

Swim Call on a U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier

Venus and Earth, the unlikely twins, are comparable in size and geochemistry, but very different nowadays in climate and environmental parameters.

Early Venusian Oceans May Have Harbored Life

If so, could there still be life in the planet’s atmosphere today?

Gus Grissom just before his Gemini 3 launch in 1965.

The Underrated Gus Grissom

A new biography confirms that the Mercury astronaut did indeed have the right stuff.

With the clock running, Nick Ohi (with laptop) and Jared Strater (to his left) update Cataglyphis near home base.

From a Massachusetts Field to the Plains of Mars

My robot is smarter than your robot.

Georges Guynemer (left) and his gunner during World War I.

The French Air Service Nearly Rejected This WW1 Ace

Georges Guynemer was turned down five times before he got the chance to fly.

In the National Air and Space Museum’s How Things Fly gallery last September, Explainer Rae Stewart helps a young visitor understand the forces acting on an aircraft in flight.

Science Explainer, National Air and Space Museum

Representative Martha McSally of Arizona has more than 1,500 hours in the A-10. She aims to keep it flying until the F-35 has proven itself as a replacement.

The Warthog’s Final Test

Colonel/Congresswoman Martha McSally wants proof before she sends the Warthog to the boneyard.

Surrounded by limestone hills and hours from the closest highway, FAST took more than seven years to build, through mostly manual labor; the narrow, treacherous roads to the site kept heavy equipment from reaching it.

China Now Has the World’s Biggest Radio Dish

The 500-meter telescope will be dedicated to astronomical research and SETI.

The charred and disassembled Apollo 1 spacecraft, weeks after the accident.

Apollo’s Worst Day

Veterans of NASA’s moon program referred to it simply as “The Fire.” Did it have to happen?

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