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Air & Space Magazine

President Barack Obama signs legislation in 2009 awarding a Congressional Gold Medal to Women Airforce Service Pilots.

Just Doing Their Job

WASP of the Ferry Command.

Assembled and enhanced from three Voyager 1 negatives, this picture shows Jupiter’s swirling clouds and Great Red Spot.

To Dare the Realm of Jupiter

A spacecraft does battle with the giant.

Roll a 180, jam your foot on the right rudder pedal, shove your stick to the upper right, and you’ll spin all the way down.

This is How You Beat the Inverted Spin Record (On Purpose)

You might want to sit down before reading.

Gentry Lee wrote four science fiction novels with Arthur C. Clarke and three solo novels. He lectures about science, the future, and space.

JPL’s Renaissance Man

Gentry Lee likes to stay busy.

Before the Stonehouse antenna listened to Soviet probes, the site was a radio installation for the U.S. Navy and, earlier, Italy.

How One Planetary Scientist Became a Cold War Spy For the CIA

Code name: Stonehouse.

The author at the controls of the Commemorative Air Force’s P-51C.

My Father, the Tuskegee Airmen, and the Dream of Flight

An African-American airline captain reflects on the legacy of his forebears.

Once a preservative coating was removed, this 1933 Wright XR-2120 cutaway engine’s stark beauty was revealed.

When the Patient Is an Engine

A KLM 747 on approach to Princess Juliana Airport adds another tourist attraction to St. Maarten’s aqua waves.

Under the Big Jets

On St. Maarten, the beach party is loud.

On Mauna Kea, a giant new telescope poses a threat to two cultures: Hawaiians and astronomers.

Big Glass and the Age of New Astronomy

The fight to put a monster telescope on Mauna Kea is part of a bigger war looming among astronomers.

The Data Stops Here: Analysts at distributed ground system number 1 (DGS-1) sift and disseminate the ISR sensor data flowing into Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, headquarters of the 480th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing. The 480th ISR is lead wing for 27 DCGS facilities in the Air Force, which are staffed by some 6,000 air personnel.

The Intel Net

The sprawling, secretive process between sensor and action.

Students fill a gallery at the National Air and Space Museum to talk to astronaut Leland Melvin (giving a thumbs up) and two more in orbit during a live video call.

Homework in Orbit

The next payload headed for the International Space Station is an 8th grader’s assignment.

In 2012, Navy Lieutenant Nicole Scherer flew a Sikorsky SH-60B Seahawk cross-country to its likely-final resting place: the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base boneyard.

Saying Goodbye to My Seahawk

The day I had to leave my SH-60B helicopter at the boneyard.

A Royal Norwegian Air Force F-16 returns to Ørland Main Air Station in 2014.

The Guard at NATO’s Northern Gate

With a new force of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, Norway readies for Europe’s next threat.

On July 17, Doc, a restored Boeing B-29, took off from McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas, the culmination of years of effort from hundreds of supporters.

Meet “Doc,” One of Only Two Flying B-29s in the World

For 42 years, Fifi was the only airworthy Superfortress. Now it has company.

None

Young Stars

A nebula of newly formed stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Methane from Meteorites? Maybe Not.

A challenge to a new hypothesis, and a great example of how science works.

Cadets Danielle Bracket (left) and Gracelyne Allred at a CAP flight academy.

5 Ways the Civil Air Patrol Works 4 U

Joe Edwards (center) learned that in space, there is no up or down.

Astronauts Forget About Gravity

Grace Willows, with a tech looking on, works on her dad’s airplane.

I Built This Airplane With a Little Help From My Friends

Ryan McCormick tests robot gripper concepts for a Mars mission in the Planetary Robotics Laboratory at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The robot (at right) likes its job too.

Robot Builder, JPL

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