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Air & Space Magazine

Inside the cockpit of an F-16.

Thoughts on a Midair Collision

What may have gone wrong in the sky over Charleston.

New Horizons at Pluto

A close encounter with the last of the “classical” planets.

An artist's concept of Geoffrey Pyke's proposed aircraft carrier made of ice.

An Aircraft Carrier Worthy of a Superhero

Geoffrey Pyke’s ingenious carrier made of ice was like something out of a comic strip.

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Leaving the Mothership

During a 1970 research flight, a NASA B-52 drops an X-24A lifting-body research aircraft.

During his last year Salter was writer-in-residence at the University of Virginia, the first since William Faulkner.

James Salter, the Fighter Pilot’s Writer

An excerpt from the novelist’s memoir, Burning the Days.

The "Wow!" signal

SETI and the Rise of the Machines

Non-biological intelligence offers another possible solution to the Fermi Paradox.

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A Lesson in Space Travel

Dr. Robert H. Goddard at Clark University in 1924. The Smithsonian Institution published Goddard’s paper, A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes, four years earlier.

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Happy Independence Day

Solar Impulse: One Giant Leap for Green Energy

Four days after takeoff, the sun-powered aircraft is still going strong.

Artist's rendering of the SuperCam instrument on NASA's planned 2020 Mars rover, which will be able to "sample" rocks from a distance, analyzing their mineralogy and chemistry and searching for organic material. The rover itself will be based on the Curiosity rover now exploring the Red Planet.

Sample Return May Not Be the Best Way to Find Martian Life

NASA’s Mars 2020 will be a great technology demonstrator, but is it right for astrobiology?

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Gemini Portrait

Astronauts Ed White and Jim McDivitt wait for liftoff inside Gemini IV on June 3, 1965. White went out on the first U.S. spacewalk later that day.

A Blériot XI Racer, piloted by Roland Garros, during the Paris - Madrid Air Race, 1911.

A Spyplane in 1914

Its mission included two pit stops and an “excellent lunch.”

A Falcon 9 exploded shortly after launch from Cape Canaveral on Sunday.

SpaceX Loses Dragon Cargo Ship in Launch Explosion

NASA says space station logistics may have to be shuffled, but there’s no emergency.

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Ares 3 Habitat Site

Andy Weir, author of The Martian, sent the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter the exact coordinates for where the Ares 3 habitat was located in his story. The MRO took this picture of the target site.

Wernher von Braun (center, standing), George Mueller (to his right) and other members of the NASA team watch an Apollo test flight in 1964.

What Is the Space Program Good For?

In 1968, on the eve of the first Apollo launch, rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun gave his answer.

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Australia Surveying

A photo from Adastra Airways aerial surveys over the Northern Territory of Australia. Best dated as earlier than 1942.

This Parker Brothers game features a Vickers Vimy on the "Lindy" game box and board—the aircraft in which British aviators John Alcock and Arthur Brown made their non-stop transatlantic flight in 1919. Perhaps a similar game existed before Lindbergh's solo flight in his Ryan monoplane.

Lindbergh’s 1927 Flight Set Off a Mini-Craze of Board Games

“Lindy Hop-Off” and “Captain Hop Across Junior” were just two of the titles inspired by the first transatlantic solo flight.

Video: The F-35 Goes Skiing

The Lightning II practices a British-style carrier takeoff at Patuxent River.

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Raptors in the Mist

Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska

Horner at the premiere of Titanic 3D in 2012

Film Composer and Pilot James Horner Dies in Airplane Crash

He wrote the scores for more than 70 films, including two in the Star Trek series.

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