Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, flew in their Lockheed Sirius aircraft, “Tingmissartoq,” on two transglobal missions, one in 1931 and the other in 1933. 

The Lindberghs were meticulous in their preparations for the two transglobal flights. They utilized every possible space of the aircraft to carry supplies.

While fuel and oil were stationed and lodging and meals provided at the Lindberghs' planned stops, they also packed plenty of emergency rations in case of an unexpected landing. Anne decided to bring along canned tomatoes because, as she remarked to Charles, "they keep you from getting beri-beri. Magellan's men all got beri-beri."

Do you ever chew gum on a flight to ease the pressure on your ears? Passengers in the 1930s did the same, but they didn’t pick up gum in the airport terminal— stewards on Eastern Air Lines flights offered chewing gum from elegant polished steel dispensers.

Can you eat in space? What do you eat in space?  These might seem like ridiculous questions now but they were real concerns at the beginning of the space program.

John Glenn was the first American to eat in space aboard Friendship 7 in 1962. At that time, it was not known if ingestion and absorption of nutrients were possible in microgravity. Glenn's consumption of applesauce and beef with vegetables, pureed and packed in tubes, and xylose sugar tablets with water, demonstrated that people could eat, swallow, and digest food normally in a weightless environment. 

Space food has come a long way since 1962.

Food scientist Rita M. Rapp spent her entire career ensuring that the astronauts’ bodies, and stomachs, were in good working order during missions. As head of the Apollo Food System team, she not only provided the means of getting food to space, but also helped make sure astronauts found something worth eating when they got there.

NASA put a lot of time and thought into the food astronauts ate in space. A corned beef sandwich sent aloft during Project Gemini was not part of that. “I hid a sandwich in my spacesuit,” recalled astronaut John Young.

Learn the history of commercial aviation in the United States from air mail to airlines.

Flying was new and daring in the early years of the 20th century. Traveling by airplane was rare. Airlines, airliners, airports, air routes—none of these existed. But by century's end, you could travel to almost anywhere in America by air in a matter of hours. How did this revolutionary change happen?  

Latinx Futurisms are creative works of art, film, or literature that center the experiences of Latino people and explore the impact of science and technology from ancient to future worlds. 

People of Latin American descent living in the United States use visual and expressive cultures to question legacies of colonialism, dictatorship, genocide, late capitalism, and anti-immigrant speech by presenting empowering outcomes. Belonging to not one world but to many worlds, many Latinx futurists draw on lo-fi and hi-fi influences to recover the cosmologies of meso-America and to think with astronomic visions like those from the observatories and mountaintops dotting the equator. Because futurism has influenced social movements, collectivities, and ways of being in meaningful ways, these artists, writers, and thinkers dare to tell stories with stars and project hope against difficult odds.

Rafael Vargas-Suarez, who signs his work “Vargas-Suarez Universal," as a professional artists has remained connected to spaceflight and has conducted research for his body of artwork at many of the most important space centers in the world.

Apollo 17 was the final mission to land people on the Moon. Discover why we stopped travelling to the Moon.

In 1956, the Iroquois, commonly known as the Huey, first flew as an Army replacement for the H-13 medevac helicopter of Korean War fame. By the end of the 20th century, Bell had produced more Hueys than any other American military aircraft, except for the Consolidated B-24. Superbly suited to the air mobility and medical evacuation missions in Vietnam, the Huey became an indelible symbol of that conflict.  

Similar to the Spinners seen in 1982's Blade Runner, now has proven to be an exciting time in the field of flying cars, as a plethora of projects are underway to create small, one or two seat autonomous “air taxis” for urban spaces. 

Image credit: The Blade Runner “Spinner” flying car movie prop on display at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, Washington.  

By the time she was 18, Suzanne Asbury-Oliver had her powered-aircraft instrument rating, commercial certificate, flight instructor, and instrument-flight instructor certificates, as well as a multiengine rating. When she saw an advertisement put out by Pepsi-Cola for a skywriter, Asbury-Oliver first thought it would be impossible to get the job. But she realized there probably wasn’t anyone more qualified, so she inquired about the position and was promptly put in a plane with the current Pepsi skywriter. Asbury-Oliver was almost instantly successful and worked with pilot Jack Strayer for a year before he retired and she became head skywriter.

In early 1930, Roscoe Turner received a major sponsorship from the Gilmore Oil Company, which was well known for its Red Lion gasoline brand. He sought a colorful way to promote the company’s products—and the concept of Gilmore the Flying Lion was born. Turner purchased the male lion cub and named him Gilmore. Turner and Gilmore began flying together in April 1930.

Planetary defense means protecting our planet from objects in space—asteroids or comets—that could crash into Earth.

According to NASA, planetary defense involves: 

• Finding and tracking objects that come within 30 million miles of Earth—known as Near Earth Objects (NEOs)
• Determine NEO’s orbit trajectory, size, shape, mass, composition, rotational dynamics and other parameters in order to determine what would happen if the object were to hit Earth
• Planning what to do to deflect or disturb an object so it doesn’t hit Earth or to limit the effect of an object hitting Earth. For instance, if an object is going to hit Earth, we can evacuate the area of impact so people aren’t hurt.  

NASA wanted to make Skylab, the United States’ first space station, feel more like home, especially because astronauts would be living there for extended periods. Although designers had to add equipment within a very confined space, they did add a toilet, an exercise area, and a shower. However, as you would imagine, showering on Skylab was very different. An average shower took two hours.