AirSpace
National Air and Space MuseumAirSpace
We see the connections to aviation and space in literally everything. From our favorite movies and the songs in our playlists to the latest news of space exploration and your commercial flight home for the holidays – aerospace is literally everywhere you look. Twice a month our hosts riff on some of the coolest stories of aviation and space history, news, and culture. We promise, whether you’re an AVGeek, wannabe Space Camper, or none of the above, you’ll find not only a connection to your life but you’ll learn something interesting in the process.
We see the connections to aviation and space in literally everything. From our favorite movies and the songs in our playlists to the latest news of space exploration and your commercial flight home for the holidays – aerospace is literally everywhere you look. Twice a month our hosts riff on some of the coolest stories of aviation and space history, news, and culture. We promise, whether you’re an AVGeek, wannabe Space Camper, or none of the above, you’ll find not only a connection to your life but you’ll learn something interesting in the process.
It's a bird? It's a plane? Its a guy pretending to be a bird??
In the 1930s, rocketry was basically a joke among the scientific establishment in America. But that didn't stop a rag tag group out of Pasadena from trying to build rockets.
When twin rovers named Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars twenty years ago, they were only supposed to last 90 Martian days.
While we get Season Nine ready for you, we turned to our friends at Sidedoor to bring you a story of running and running and running and running…in Space!
On a spring evening in 1933, Amelia Earhart took first lady Eleanor Roosevelt on a joyride.
As we look forward to the total solar eclipse, we're looking back at an older eclipse that marked the start of democracy in what would be the USA.
Did you know that it takes the Earth 365-ish days to orbit the sun?
Afrofuturism is a cultural movement that explores the possibilities of Black futures through art, literature, music, film and pop culture. And a lot of Afrofuturism has a lot of space in it.
Hollywood is in love with airports and airplanes and we are too
From when it started in 1981, MTV used an iconic neon scribbled astronaut as it's channel ID for years
Hurricanes are a fact of life in the Caribbean but in 2017, the season was so bad that it changed everything for the people of Puerto Rico.
In January 1942 a B-314 flying boat operated by Pan American World Airways landed in New York after making arguably the first around the world flight by a commercial airliner.
In a lot of political and financial circles space exploration is often talked about in terms of human space exploration VERSUS robotic space travel. But most scientists and engineers who work on space missions think this question is better answered with a yes, and.
It's a very special day, parade day of course! The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has been a holiday staple for almost 100 years, and the balloons have been a part of it for nearly as long.
Space is dangerous. And as long as we've been sending people into space, we've also been thinking about what we can do to make sure they're prepared for it, and make sure they will come home again.
When the Boeing 747 first came out it revolutionized the already revolutionary Jet Age, we're looking back on the more than 50 year history of the original Jumbo Jet.
Europa Clipper is soon to be on its was to the outer solar system to study one of Jupiter's most interesting moons.
AirSpace is looking up! We're exploring how we hang really big, priceless artifacts from the ceiling in the museum.
When Barbie first became an astronaut in 1965, she was more than a decade ahead of NASA sending a woman to space. Since then, there have been several versions of astronaut Barbie.
In the past several years an explosion of Star Wars movies, shows, and books have brought more diversity into the universe than ever before.
En los últimos años, una explosión de películas, series y libros de la Guerra de las galaxias ha aportado más diversidad que nunca al universo.
Los artistas con frecuencia utilizan sus medios para contar historias, enviar mensajes o imaginar futuros distintos de nuestro presente.
Artists frequently use their mediums to tell stories, send messages, or imagine futures unlike our present.
En 2020, una devastadora rotura de cable significó el final de uno de los radiotelescopios más icónicos del mundo.
In 2020, a devastating cable break led to the end of one of the most iconic radio telescopes in the world.
In the early 1960s, more than 14,000 unaccompanied children left Cuba and their families behind, fleeing the Castro regime.
Se necesita un poco de fe, confianza y una exención de visa. A principio de los sesenta, más de 14,000 niños sin acompañante dejaron Cuba y a sus familias, huyendo del régimen castrista.
Coming soon to this podcast feed AeroEspacial, a second limited series from the creators of AirSpace! ¡Próximamente en el podcast AeroEspacial, una segunda serie limitada de los creadores de AirSpace!
It’s been nearly 50 years (!) since humans last walked on the Moon. But NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions will soon return astronauts to the lunar surface.
It took pride, deceit, and a giant catapult to set off the feud between the Wright brothers and the Smithsonian.
When Barbie first became an astronaut in 1965, she was more than a decade ahead of NASA sending a woman to space. Since then, there have been several versions of astronaut Barbie.
From Dante to Matt Damon, Percival Lowell to Perseverance, humans have long wondered about, studied, and eventually explored our closest planetary neighbor, Mars.
In 1969, nearly 600 million people tuned in to watch the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Four of these rapt viewers were a family of Indian immigrants in Delaware. Four months later that family was driving through Ohio and decided to stop and knock on Neil Armstrong’s parent's door.
Imagine this: It’s 1936 and you’re taking a luxurious three day flight from Germany to the United States in the Hindenburg. But instead of landing in New Jersey as expected, you dock to the top of the tallest building in the world: the Empire State Building.
A duck in a hot air balloon. A cat in an airship. A lion cub in an airplane. Stories of animals in flight.
Today thanks to GPS ecologist can track thousands of animals all the time with tracking devices smaller than a quarter. But in 1970 there was just a weather satellite, a 23 pound collar, and an elk named Monique.
The Juno spacecraft currently orbiting Jupiter almost didn’t have a camera, and boy would that have been a shame.
In the fifties and sixties to get hired as a stewardess put you in a club that was akin to being a movie star.
The pigeon – ubiquitous bird, oft city-dweller, and… war hero?
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.
We’re kicking off this season with an episode that really gets to the CORE of what AirSpace is all about.
Season 7 of AirSpace coming soon!
A special bonus from our friends at PORTRAITS!
How America's first large space telescope went from a "billion-dollar blunder" to one of history's most important scientific instruments.
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?
It’s rare for our hosts to unpack a space movie after all seeing it for the very first time.
You can’t fly really fast without a big boom.
Catching Zs in zero-G.
In 1971 an Apollo 14 astronaut took about 500 tree seeds into orbit around the Moon.
A popular form of aerial advertising and even the occasional marriage proposal, skywritten messages can have a BIG impact (and with letters approximately 1500 feet tall… we mean that quite literally).
When you hear the term “space archeology” you might envision a khaki-clad astronaut excavating the Moon. But, space archeologists are actually Earth-bound researchers who use satellite and other aerial imagery to assist in archeological applications right here on our home planet.
NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions will soon return astronauts to the lunar surface
What about electric vehicles in the *sky*?
We talk a lot about pilots and astronauts who’ve made history, but today’s aerospace trailblazer was a humble NASA civil servant and petitioner named Clifford Norton.
Staring at the Sun for science.
You might know them as the Ice Giants, but really they’re big mush-balls: Uranus and Neptune.
What started with a magazine article about the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta ended with a thrilling aerial escape from East Germany in 1979.
Anyone who’s observed the Milky Way or has seen a beautiful Hubble image can understand how space and space imagery can be a source of creative inspiration.
Historically, queer-identifying people in the U.S. military have been forced out or forced to hide who they are.
In science fiction, the possibilities are seemingly endless.
Welcome to QueerSpace — a limited series featuring stories and people at the intersection of aviation, space, and LGBTQ+ history and culture
They’re incredibly dense, super cool, and mind-bendingly-mysterious -- BLACK HOLES!
The early days of aviation were full of outlandish characters, and it can be a little exhausting
On a spring evening in 1933, Amelia Earhart took first lady Eleanor Roosevelt on a joyride.
Traveling for the holidays? Would you rather take a trip to the Moon?
An actress, aviatrix, and altruist? Now, that’s a triple threat.
93% of televisions in the United States tuned in to see Neil Armstrong walk on the Moon. Can you believe 7% were watching something else?
Have you always wanted to experience what it’s like to be an astronaut but without the queasy upshot of actually shooting into space?
Ever wonder what would happen to your body in space without a spacesuit?
Mirror, mirror under the football field, what secrets of the universe will you yield?
100 years ago Bessie Coleman became the first African American woman to earn her pilot's license.
Raise a glass and cheers to a new season of AirSpace! And to help us get in the celebratory mood, today's episode is about a truly intoxicating period of American history – prohibition.
We’re revisiting a favorite from May 2020 – the first installment of the AirSpace Movie Club.
What’s in a name?
We’d be lying if we told you we don’t occasionally daydream about the end of the world. But, like, scientifically speaking.
Earth’s twin or Earth’s evil twin? It depends on who you ask.
A long time ago (2013), and not so far away (New Mexico), a group embarked on a quest: to translate Star Wars: A New Hope into Navajo.
In 1930s Chicago, the Challenger Air Pilots Association cultivated a community that has since helped thousands of Black pilots learn how to fly. And it all started with a broken down car.
If you’ve flown commercial, you’re familiar with the preflight safety spiel.
Did you know the National Air and Space Museum has a huge art collection?
Any child of the 80s or 90s knows about Space Camp. But, what’s its origin story? And how did it become such a part of the millennial zeitgeist?
Have you ever wondered how the stuff in space gets named?
They’re incredibly dense, super cool, and mind-bendingly-mysterious -- BLACK HOLES!
Did you hear they found water on the Moon? Or was it Mars? No wait, Mercury? An asteroid?
Flight attendants were instrumental in the fight to get smoking OUT of the skies
This week the Perseverance Rover will touch down on the surface of Mars, bringing an end to its seven-month journey and this mixtape.
Right now COVID-19 vaccines are traveling across the country and around the world – and air travel is a critical component of this supply chain.
An audio tour of the night sky
The search for life is a pillar of Mars exploration. But our search isn’t only confined to the planets of our solar system.
Satellites from NASA and private companies are making headlines. What’s their history and how might their future affect space and life here on Earth?
It’s safe to say that the AirSpace pod loves Galaxy Quest, but doesn’t everyone!? It has it all: sci-fi, action, and comedy, an underdog who saves the day, and feel good story with space aliens!
Interplanetary road trips take a WHILE. So for this episode of Voyages to Mars, while we cruise onward towards the Red Planet, we’re listening to some poetry that pays tribute to long duration space travel.
Did you learn the constellations as a child? Odds are, if you lived in a city, you saw more stars in the classroom—or a planetarium if you were lucky—than by looking at the night sky.
This month marks the 20th birthday of the International Space Station! That’s 240 straight months—which is exactly how long 2020 feels so far.
Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles, published a few years before the world’s first satellite was even launched (!), remains one of the most influential stories of human settlement on Mars ever published.
On this episode of AirSpace we’re spotlighting the heroic service and enduring legacy of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP.
We’re all fans of something—movies, tv shows, video games, comic books, sports teams, you name it!—and that can help us connect with new people with shared interests and frames of reference.
Humans aren't yet able to go to Mars ourselves, so we’re reliant on the help of rovers and landers to be our eyes and ears on the surface - our mechanical 'boots on the ground.' This episode is our ode to ROBOTS!
There have been great movies about military aviation for almost as long as there have been movies and airplanes
82,000 American service members are listed as Missing in Action – 72,000 from World War II alone.
Leaving Earth on your way to Mars, the first pit stop you might make is the Moon’s orbit.
If you’re a Broadway fan (or have been ANYWHERE near a theater in the last couple years), you’ve likely heard about Come From Away—the Tony-award-winning smash hit musical with a story firmly rooted in generations of aviation history.
If you had $500 MILLION dollars to spend going anywhere in the solar system (rocket not included), where would YOU go?
To accompany NASA's Perseverance rover on its seven-month journey, we’re compiling a literary mixtape of Martian sci-fi set to music by DJ Kid Koala.
We’ve talked about planetary protection on the pod before, but it’s never felt closer to home than now, so we’re digging a little deeper into what it takes to keep our planet safe from space germs and keep space safe from Earth germs.
At least someone's big summer trip isn't cancelled—NASA is sending another rover to Mars!
Welcome to Season 3! Today we’re talking about secret space shuttles--seriously!
Today we’re talking about Sully, the movie based on the real-life emergency water landing of US Airways flight 1549 which ditched in the Hudson River in January 2009.
In this addition of our at-home movie club, we explore the world of the sci-fi thriller Snowpiercer.
Emily, Matt and Nick talk about the Man of Steel in his appearance in this 1978 classic film.
We're BACK!!! With a special movie mini series. Episode One - Troop Zero
Is that a Martian bacterium you just found, or is it an Earth bug accidentally along for the ride?
Emily, Matt, and Nick unpack story behind their new favorite space movie (yes, it’s even better than Armageddon!).
Today on the show, we tackle the meaning of life. Well… not really. But definitely matters of consequence.
Today we’re talking about a really cool project that brought together one former-Mythbuster, a couple of Smithsonian units, and makers across the country to reimagine an incredible piece of Apollo engineering.
This isn’t a lame Halloween story, this is badass history.
In part two of Walking on the Moon, we’re talking about the important science still happening with Apollo Moon rocks here on Earth a half-century later.
50 years ago this July, humans set foot on the Moon for the first time.
What music would you take along on a quarter-million mile road trip?
Some of the world’s best pilots are the ones you hope never to see.
An asteroid the size of…. Massachusetts.
Failure is Always An Option
On this episode of AirSpace we’re talking about the most exclusive form of public transportation – presidential flight.
As you may have heard, astronauts Christina Koch and Anne McClain were scheduled to perform a spacewalk today.
Curiosity is getting a new friend named Rosalind Franklin.
Longtime listeners know that bailing out of an airplane is a last resort that pilots take very seriously. But what happens when you unwittingly eject straight into a thundercloud?
The second season of AirSpace is coming in March!
Dreamers may wish upon stars, but the AirSpace hosts wish upon meteors.
Flying in space is precise, technical, and surprisingly personal.
EXTRA! EXTRA! ROBOT LANDING ON MARS!
2 Space Shuttles + 1 asteroid the size of Texas + a dash of 90s rock = the most terribly wonderful space movie of all time? Well, maybe for Emily, Matt, and Nick.
Spoiler – they land on the Moon.
What used to be a fire season is now more like a fire year.
Teacher in Space Christa McAuliffe’s lesson plans fly in space 32 years later
Deep sea and deep space are more alike than you may think
How international is the International Space Station?
Kicking butt and taking flight
There’s a little black spot on the Sun today
Emily, Matt, and Nick provide the intel on our eyes in the sky and the high-flying hi-tech that makes it possible.
Did we just find life on Mars? No. But NASA did announce two exciting new discoveries on the Red Planet—just before a Martian dust storm engulfed the planet.
When space exploration began, so did the garbage.
You’ve heard about a gastropub, but what about an astropub? Nobody becomes an astronaut for the food, but space cuisine has come a long way since the 1960s. You can now find espresso and tortillas aboard the International Space Station, but there is sadly no astronaut ice cream. In this episode, we’ll find out what does – and does not – appeal to the modern gastro-naut.
Open the podcast doors, HAL.
Emily, Matt, and Nick reflect on Hawking's enduring impact on science and culture.
Getting out is just the beginning.
So you want to be an astronaut...
It’s 5 o’clock somewhere on Mars.
Coming Soon... Stories that defy gravity from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.
Home Front: Anything-to-Anywhere
September 25, 202535min 2sec
The Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) are relatively well-known in the U.S. today (to hear more about their story, see our previous episode), but they weren't the only women who flew planes in World War II. A small group of Americans joined pilots from 25 other countries in England's Air Transport Auxiliary, where they ferried hundreds of thousands of planes across the British Isles. Among the pilots were women from all countries and men too old or otherwise unfit for active duty (including a WWI Ace with only one eye and arm). They braved poor weather, mechanically iffy planes, regular bombings, and dangerous conditions to keep the Allies in the air.
Thanks to our guests in this episode
- Becky Aikman, Author of Spitfires: The American Women who Flew in the Face of Danger During WWII
- Richard Poad, organizer, Air Transport Auxiliary Museum at the Maidenhead Heritage Centre
Oral histories in the episode came from the NASA Oral History Project and the TWU Libraries Women's Collection at Texas Women's University.
The transcript for this episode is at s.si.edu/homefront4
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AirSpace is made possible by generous support from Lockheed Martin