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IN THE MAGAZINE   Cancelled: The Moonbat   Airborne Astronomers   The Iditarod Air Force   Long Live the DC-3

READER SCRAPBOOK Check out our scrapbook of readers' aviation and space pictures. Then add your own. VIDEO: THE (SLIGHTLY ODD) "HANGING EYE" Army Air Service successfully demonstrates the practicality of an observation car dropped on a cable from a blimp hidden in the clouds. SNAPSHOT News and notes about flight and space exploration.

Shuttlenauts The face of the Space Shuttle Era. To understand just how long the space shuttle has been flying, and how many generations of astronauts it has ferried to orbit, consider this: Of the six men assigned to the 134th and last scheduled mission (pictured), four weren't even born when the first shuttle commander, John Young, joined NASA in 1962. Young, 80 (photo, left), and his STS-1 pilot Bob Crippen, 73, are now retired, as are almost all the original shuttle astronauts — the Apollo-era holdovers as well as the "Thirty-Five New Guys," as they called themselves, hired in 1978 to fly the new reusable spaceplane. The younger pilots, engineers, and scientists who replaced those first shuttlenauts had the same fire for space travel, says Crippen. They were "Type-A personalities who want to press forward and do something adventurous." They were also a diverse bunch. What's most surprising about the first group portrait in our gallery is how similar the shuttle's first and last crews appear: all white men, mostly ex-military pilots. Thirty years ago, that was expected. Now it looks odd. The people who flew on the shuttle — 363 altogether — came from many backgrounds, races, and nationalities. They changed the face of spaceflight. Read more »

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From Airships to Water Slides The world's largest free-standing building gets a second lease on life. More » Coanda's Claim The story of a jet flight in 1910, just seven years after Kitty Hawk, may be too good to be true. More » Airplanes on Parachutes When everything else fails, or fails all at once, pull the parachute that saves the whole airplane. More »

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THE ONCE AND FUTURE MOON A Moon Base We Can Afford We are almost at the end of a year that has seen major changes in our space program. Read full post »

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Photo Credits (from top): Robert Seale; Courtesy Cargolifter; Massimo Foti; Courtesy Cirrus Aircraft; Spudis and Lavoie, in press