As the National Air and Space Museum built its collection and its identity, it also needed to find its footing as a place for science and research. In the third episode of our four-part limited series ...

The scrapbook I kept about the Viking mission and everything related to space exploration is here with me now in my office at ...

On July 20, 1976, Viking 1 touched down on the Red Planet, and became the first robotic spacecraft to successfully carry out ...

In summer 2026, NASA will commemorate the 50th anniversary of one of the most consequential milestones in planetary ...

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum joins the aviation and spaceflight communities in mourning the loss of Wally Funk, who was a remarkable pilot, flight instructor, Air Safety ...

The dangers of powering military aircraft with nuclear energy. Seventy years ago, on September 17, 1955, a modified Convair B-36 departed Carswell Air Force Base in Texas. Legendary U.S. Air Force ...

Pilotless aircraft have been around longer than you might think. In 1898, newspapers heralded the dawn of a new age with the invention of a device that would “render fleets and guns useless.” Physical ...

To end the brutality of World War I combat, military strategists looked to the skies for victory. World War I airplanes that can still fly are a rarity. In the United States, in fact, only a handful ...

Browse our collections, stories, research, and on demand content. Maj. Richard Heyser had been sitting 14 miles above the Earth for 5 hours. Soaring at the edge of space, he flew from northern ...

Before the race to the Moon ended in 1969, both the Americans and Soviets were planning their separate futures in space. After the competitive short-term goals of human spaceflight had been met in the ...

Picture the Earth from above. In your mind's eye, what do you see? Today, we have access to air and space technology that lets us see various views of the Earth with ease. However, before the ...

Fifty years ago, on December 19, 1972, the Apollo 17 astronauts splashed down in the Pacific. They were the last humans to visit the Moon—and the last to be more than 400 miles from the Earth. Since ...