We’ve all seen the breathtaking Hubble and JWST images of our universe, but have you ever wondered how these pictures are made?

At the turn of the 20th century, astronomy got a serious glow-up. On today’s episode, we’re telling the story of how the work of many astronomers contributed to a complete redesign of how big we know our universe to be and what we think it looks like.

We’re kicking off this season with an episode that really gets to the core of what AirSpace is all about – drilling down to unpack scientifically questionable movies we love... or at least love to hate.

Just over one week until until a brand new season of AirSpace! But today, we’re excited to bring you a special bonus drop from our friends at the National Portrait Gallery’s podcast PORTRAITS.

Season 7 of AirSpace is just around the corner, but today we have a special bonus drop from our friends at the Sidedoor podcast! You’ve likely seen recent awe-inspiring images from the James Webb Space Telescope, but this episode focuses on its predecessor: the Hubble Space Telescope. Sidedoor explores how America's first large space telescope went from a "billion-dollar blunder" to one of history's most important scientific instruments. Look for more episodes of Sidedoor wherever you get your podcasts!

 It’s Halloween eve, 1938, and you're listening to the radio when you hear a breaking news bulletin that there's been a Martian attack!... On New Jersey? Obvious spoiler: there was no Martian attack that night. But there was a radio play — a performance of Orson Welles’ adaptation of “War of the Worlds” by H.G. Wells.

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.

For six months in 1964 the US Air Force flew an airplane at supersonic speeds over Oklahoma City, often multiple times a day, in a series of tests called Project Bongo. The story of how and why the tests happened is a wild ride, and we’re breaking it down for you today on AirSpace.

Sleeping in space goes back almost as far as there have been people in space (specifically, a cosmonaut who caught some shuteye in 1961). Astronauts have slept in capsules, shuttles, space stations, and even on the Moon. Sleep is an important part of an astronaut’s health, particularly for longer duration missions. But from noisy crewmates to spaceship sounds and even the sheer excitement of it all, sleeping in space hasn’t always been easy. To find out what it’s really like we speak with former astronaut Mike Massimino who relates his shuttle sleeping experience to a big slumber party.  We’re catching Zs in zero-G, today on AirSpace.

In 1971 an Apollo 14 astronaut took about 500 tree seeds into orbit around the Moon. When he got back, those seeds were distributed, germinated, and planted all around the United States. And then… they were mostly forgotten about, even by NASA. That is, until the mid-1990s when a teacher at a Girl Scout camp in Indiana wondered what was up with this “Moon Tree” at her local camp. On this episode, we speak with the NASA planetary scientist who received her question, and as a result, started a database to track down the Moon Tree locations. Today, there are 67 known, living, first generation Moon Trees all over the United States – maybe even in your town!