Stories of daring, stories of technological feats, stories of prevailing against the odds ... these are the stories we tell at the National Air and Space Museum. Dive in to the stories below to discover, learn, and be inspired. 

Showing 1 - 10 of 26

December 18, 2024 How Active Volcanoes Can Put Airplanes in Danger Story | Air & Space Quarterly

A global warning system keeps active volcanoes from shutting down commercial aviation.

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December 18, 2024 That Time We Bombed a Volcano Story | Air & Space Quarterly

In 1935, a squad of U.S. bombers dropped a total of 20 of the 600-pound bombs on the lava channels in the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii.

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December 18, 2024 Our Changing Planet Story | Air & Space Quarterly

The new climate change exhibition focuses on how aerospace innovations are helping us to both understand what is happening and how we can potentially mitigate the causes and effects.

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November 27, 2024 Meteorite-Triggered Floods on Mars Story

Examples of large-scale valleys and channels around some large impact craters whose formation and activity appears to vary indicates tremendous discharges of water that largely postdate the ancient period of widespread water flow on the Red Planet. 

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November 14, 2024 AirSpace Revisited: Journey to the Past Story | AirSpace Podcast

As we wait for season TEN (!!!) we're looking back on this season six favorite. Every day, satellites orbit Earth taking pictures. These images are used for everything from intelligence to weather prediction and even today’s topic – archaeology. 

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September 27, 2024 Are the Rocks on Mars and Earth Alike? Story

The rocks on the surface of Mars are one of the main resources we have for learning about the Red Planet. How similar are the rocks on Earth compared to Mars? It turns out they are very similar, but Mars is missing a few.

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September 21, 2022 Remote (Controlled) Story | Air & Space Quarterly

Antarctica’s environment is the most extreme on our planet. Now, an aerial revolution has begun with uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) flying in this challenging environment. 

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September 21, 2022 The Planet Detective Story | Air & Space Quarterly

Bruce Campbell is a senior scientist at the National Air and Space Museum’s Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, where he studies the surface and subsurface geology of the moon, Mars, Venus, and the icy moons of the outer planets. 

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September 21, 2022 Drones at Dead Heart Story | Air & Space Quarterly

Linear dunes—desert formations stretching miles in length, which account for 40 percent of the dunes on Earth. UAVs are revolutionizing scientists ability to conduct fieldwork. They can collect high-resolution, high-fidelity data to analyze the nature of a variety of features. 

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July 14, 2022 How the Rocky Planets Got Their Shapes Story

Join us in taking a closer look at how Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars took shape.  

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