Showing 1 - 10 of 164

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October 09, 2025

AirSpace Bonus! There's More to That: Auroras

Story | AirSpace Podcast

While you wait for AirSpace Season 11, check out this episode on the science and history of auroras from our friends at Smithsonian Magazine's podcast, There's More to That.

A celestial scene featuring a dark planet silhouetted against the Milky Way's star-studded expanse.

August 29, 2025

Why Is a Planet Not a Star?

Story

Over 5,800 exoplanets have been discovered, with more and more being observed almost every day. But what makes these objects planets and not stars? How different are planets and stars, actually?

A short, barrel-shape white robot has a silver, dome-shape head and two long arms.

July 31, 2025

Space: A Place for Robots

Story

The majority of what has been accomplished in space has been carried out by uncrewed robotic craft. 

A photo montage shows a historical black-and-white astronomical photographic plate from 1923 showing the spiral-armed Andromeda Galaxy (M31) superimposed with portraits of two male astronomers.

June 24, 2025

How Big is the Universe?

Story | Air & Space Quarterly

In 1920, Astronomers Heber Curtis and Harlow Shapley debated at the Smithsonian whether Andromeda was a separate galaxy.

A black-and-white historical photograph from circa 1931 shows Albert Einstein with Edwin Hubble and other astronomers standing on a walkway in front of the large dome of the Mount Wilson Observatory.

June 24, 2025

Who is the Man That Discovered the Universe?

Story | Air & Space Quarterly

A hundred years ago, astronomer Edwin Hubble revealed a universe of galaxies that existed beyond ours. His influence in astronomy continues to this day.

Vintage image of three men sitting by a table having a discussion.

May 23, 2025

The Radio Universe, the Cold War, and Universal Communication

Story

With the advent of the Space Age, scientists began searching for extraterrestrial life using radio waves, believing advanced civilizations might send signals across space. Despite Cold War tensions, researchers from different countries worked together to explore this possibility. Their efforts led to international meetings, shaping modern SETI research in the search for cosmic communication.

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March 27, 2025

Space Race: The Prequel (Part Two)

Story | AirSpace Podcast

We pick up where Part One left off! When you hear 'space race' you probably (correctly) think about the 1960s Soviet Union v. U.S. race to put an astronaut on the Moon. But a few hundred years before, the space race was all about Venus. 

AirSpace, a podcast, logo

March 27, 2025

Space Race: The Prequel (Part Two)

Story | AirSpace Podcast

We pick up where Part One left off! When you hear 'space race' you probably (correctly) think about the 1960s Soviet Union v. U.S. race to put an astronaut on the Moon. But a few hundred years before, the space race was all about Venus. 

Five aircraft in a V-formation shot from below.

March 20, 2025

A Military Airplane Flies Into the Sunset

Story | Air & Space Quarterly

Aviation and space in the news.

Bennu, a 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid, was the target of OSIRIS-REx, which touched down on the asteroid on October 20, 2020, collecting 4.3 ounces of rock and dust and returning them to Earth three years later.

March 20, 2025

An Innovative Spacecraft Makes Contact with an Asteroid

Story | Air & Space Quarterly

An interview with Dante Lauretta, NASA's principal investigator on the OSIRIS-REx mission. In his new book, The Asteroid Hunter, Lauretta recounts the sample-return mission that brought rocks and dust from the asteroid Bennu to back to Earth.