All Stories

It has been 10 years since the high-altitude balloon flight of Felix Baumgartner in the Red Bull Stratos capsule and his exhilarating return to Earth. Baumgartner landed safely back on Earth after 4 minutes and 20 seconds, cementing his place in the history of lighter-than-air flight.

Conservator Rachel Greenberg reflects on the conservation and restoration of a 30-foot parabolic antenna that is part of a full-scale engineering model of the Applications Technology Satellite-6 (ATS-6). Read about the large umbrella-shaped antenna that now hangs from the ceiling in the new One World Connected gallery.

To honor his passing at the age of 93, curator Jennifer Levasseur reflects on the life of two-time astronaut Gen. James A. McDivitt and his connection with the Museum.

There’s a lot to see and do at the new Air and Space in DC, including eight new exhibitions, hundreds of new artifacts, 50 digital interactives, and more. Not sure where to start? We’ve pulled together 10 can’t-miss highlights from our new galleries.

On October 4, 1957 the Soviet Union successfully launched the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik. For some, Sputnik's launch inspired an interest in rocketry and brought many scientists into the space industry. One of those people was Homer Hickam, a high schooler in a small West Virginia mining town who would go on to work for NASA, write a memoir, and inspire a movie. On today’s episode we unpack that film – October Sky.

This fall, a spacecraft from a galaxy far, far, away will go on display at the Museum in DC: a full-sized T-70 X-wing Starfighter from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Get a behind-the-scenes look at how it was installed in its new display home.

Museum curator Matt Shindell interviewed artist Rafael Vargas-Suarez, whose work engages with spaceflight, space technologies, and human futures. Examine his various artwork and what he has to say.

There would be no Apollo program without the Gemini program, which took place in between the Mercury and Apollo programs from 1964 to 1965.  

In the late 1950s, he United States and the Soviet Union were locked in a competition for global influence and prestige—the Cold War—and began to compete on a new frontier: space. Both nations started programs to send humans into space. In the United States, that program was Project Mercury.  

Eileen M. Collins, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, was the first woman to be the pilot on a NASA space shuttle flight. She recently spoke with Air & Space Quarterly senior editor Diane Tedeschi.