Air & Space Magazine | Smithsonian Magazine

Foggy Inspection

A C-17 Globemaster gets a challenging visual inspection at Dover Air Base before take off.

August 3, 2016

Keep walking, and try not to look at the camera.

Life on an Aircraft Carrier

August 2, 2016

Rafat Ansari of NASA Glenn (right) helps attach a camera to a volunteer pilot's aircraft.

Private Pilots, NASA Wants Your Help

The space agency is looking for general aviation pilots to help track harmful algal blooms.

August 1, 2016

Defrosting Dunes

As sunlight hits these Martian dunes at the end of winter, carbon dioxide gas escapes and forms the spots in this image taken from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

August 1, 2016

The Curiosity rover landed on Mars four years ago next week, and is still investigating methane concentrations at Gale Crater.

Testing for Methane on Mars

And the three leading theories are…

July 29, 2016

Mini Me on the Wing

A technician mounts a tiny P-80 model to the wing of a P-51A, which will take it through high-speed dives so the model can collect in-flight data.

July 29, 2016

Walt Cunningham onboard Apollo 7 in 1968. It's safer in Earth orbit.

Space Radiation May Cause Heart Disease

Apollo astronauts have died from cardiovascular problems at a much higher rate than other astronauts. Why?

July 28, 2016

The LUX experiment, deep underground in South Dakota, was an attempt to find dark matter particles by observing any flashes of light when they passed through liquid xenon. It didn't find anything.

Little Light in the Search for Dark Matter

Scientists have to re-think the particles believed to make up most of the universe when another experiment comes up empty.

July 27, 2016

Hangar Tow

Crew chiefs with the Wyoming Air National Guard tow an aircraft inside the hangar for maintenance.

July 27, 2016

Solar Impulse 2 flies over Cairo, Egypt on July 13, 2016.

Solar Impulse 2 Finishes Its Epic Round-the-World Trip

And all without using a drop of fuel.

July 26, 2016

Atlantis launches on the STS-27 mission, December 1988.

What does launch feel like?

July 26, 2016

Catacombs, 1998. NASA couldn’t have sent men to the moon without first firing the Apollo Saturn V F-1 engine on this test stand at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

NASA’s Glorious Ruins

A photographer finds the beauty in abandoned launch sites.

July 26, 2016

Eldon Joersz (left) and George Morgan on the day of their record-setting flight.

The Fastest Jet Flight in History

Forty years ago, the SR-71 Blackbird set a record that still stands.

July 26, 2016

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this view of the craters Messier (right) and Messier A (left). Both craters were likely produced during an oblique impact, only a few degrees above the horizontal. The projectile was traveling from right to left. Messier (at right) was made first, but ricochet and downrange propagation of the top of the projectile (decapitation) made Messier A. Note the ejecta blanket of Messier extend at right angles to the impact direction, while whisker-like rays extend downrange from Messier A in the same direction as the impact.

Ricochets, Decapitations and Lunar Sculptures

How some of the largest craters on the Moon were created.

July 25, 2016

Space Tools of the Future

The astronauts aboard the International Space Station used their new 3D printer and specs designed by a student at the University of Alabama, Robert Hillan, to create this Multipurpose Precision Maintenance Tool.

July 25, 2016