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Air & Space Magazine

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Airacuda in Flight, Briefly

The Bell XFM-1 Airacuda was a heavy fighter and Bell’s first military aircraft. It began flying in 1940, but its many flaws led to it being scrapped in less than two years.

The National Air and Space Museum's first Coast Guard helicopter, tail number 1426.

The Smithsonian Gets Its First Coast Guard Helicopter

The Seaguard arrives just in time for the service’s centennial of flight.

TRANSATEL was small enough, and portable enough, to go practically anywhere in the world.

Splashdown, Live Via Satellite

In 1968, getting TV broadcasts from a ship at sea was still tricky business.

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Warthog Refueling

An A-10C Thunderbolt II gets a top-off during training in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

NASA’s latest class of astronauts is a mix of former military pilots, scientists and engineers.

Ask the Astronaut: What qualities do I need to become an astronaut?

The Rosetta spacecraft took this image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko backlit by the sun on March 27. The creation of complex organic molecules in the lab is in line with the identification of organic molecules in cometary samples taken by Rosetta’s Philae lander.

Scientists Create Life’s Building Blocks From Just Three Ingredients

Take dust and ice, add radiation, and voilà.

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The Evolution of Ligeia Mare

Scientists have noticed that the bright areas of what they call the “magic island” in Ligeia Mare, a hydrocarbon sea on Saturn’s moon Titan, changes in brightness, possibly due to waves from the sea.

Astronaut Tim Peake took this picture of three vehicles attached to the space station last week (from left, a Cygnus, Soyuz and Progress).

Parking Is Getting Tight at the Space Station

Someone having a party?

North American test pilot George Welch went supersonic in one of the three XP-86s his company built. But when?

The Mach 1 Whodunit

Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet.

“Tower to Cessna G-BLHJ: Who’s a good boy?”

British TV Show Asks If Dogs Can Fly Airplanes and…Yes, They Can

This is your captain barking.

The classic wheel-shaped space station concept of the 1950s.

Ask the Astronaut: Why isn’t the space station shaped like a wheel?

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Tidal Patterns

Peter Stern, who produces exhibits at the National Air and Space Museum, takes images of the Eastern shore from the air. His photos, which show the intricate patterns of the tributaries, grassland beaches, and tidal estuaries, can be seen through May 15, 2016, at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas, Virginia.

Simulation showing the density distribution of iron-60 as it appeared 2.2 million years ago following supernova explosions in the vicinity of Earth.

Supernova Fallout Hit Earth When Human Ancestors Were Alive

Lucky for them, the source of the explosions was beyond the “kill distance.”

Inside the space station’s Quest airlock.

Ask the Astronaut: What does space smell like?

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Red Flag Take-off

An F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot prepares to fly during the Red Flag combat exercises over Nevada.

Atlantis over the Bahamas during the last space shuttle flight in 2011.

Ask the Astronaut: Why wasn’t the space shuttle built out of titanium?

Proof of concept: December 17, 1903, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Wright Brothers’ Patent Application, Missing for 36 Years, Turns Up Underground

National Archives finds document in a storage facility in Kansas.

Tom Jones on a spacewalk during the STS-98 mission in February 2001.

Ask the Astronaut: Do spacewalkers worry about dying outside?

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Green Seas at Night

British astronaut Tim Peake took this photo of the brilliant colors lighting up the night on Earth.

Geological map of the Crisium impact basin.

Mapping Melts on the Moon

Small deposits of impact melt can help explain early lunar history, if you know where the material came from.

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