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AirSpace

AirSpace

National Air and Space Museum 201 Episodes Aug 20, 2026

AirSpace is a podcast from the National Air and Space Museum that explores the connections between aviation, space, and everyday life. Twice a month, hosts discuss stories from aviation and space history, news, and culture, drawing links to movies, music, travel, and more. The show aims to make aerospace accessible and interesting to all listeners, whether they are aviation enthusiasts or casual fans.

Episodes

50 Years: Onward and Upward
50 Years: Onward and Upward Aug 20, 2026 22:30 If you haven’t been to the National Air and Space Museum in D.C. for a while, you may notice a few things have changed…actually, just about everything in the building, including the building itself, has been completely overhauled. What started as some exterior renovation more than a decade ago became a complete reimagining of our iconic museum. Every exhibit space has been redesigned with
50 Years: New Ideas
50 Years: New Ideas Jul 23, 2026 24:38 As the National Air and Space Museum built its collection and its identity, it also needed to find its footing as a place for science and research. In the third episode of our four-part limited series “50 Years of Air + Space,” we’re exploring the history of scholarship at the Museum. We’ll dive into early debates over what type of research this new Museum would do and what type of academ
50 Years: Origins
50 Years: Origins Jul 9, 2026 29:39 The National Air and Space Museum’s building in downtown Washington DC just turned 50 years old, but the Museum’s story began long before the ribbon-cutting in 1976. In this episode, we’re continuing our four-part limited series “50 Years of Air + Space” by going back in time for the Museum’s origin story. We’ll explore early aerospace connections and artifacts at the Smithsonian and the
50 Years: Opening Day
50 Years: Opening Day Jun 25, 2026 27:18 On July 1, 1976, the National Air and Space Museum opened its doors to the public. It was an unforgettable debut for an iconic building, complete with a flyover from the Air Force’s Thunderbirds, speeches from President Gerald Ford (and a certain Apollo astronaut), and a ribbon-cutting triggered by a signal from a spacecraft on its way to Mars. There was nothing quite like the National Ai
AirSpace Bonus! Sidedoor: The Wright Sister
AirSpace Bonus! Sidedoor: The Wright Sister Jun 11, 2026 40:47 We'll be back soon with new episodes of AirSpace! In the mean time, here's a treat from our friends at Sidedoor.Orville and Wilbur Wright have been immortalized as the men who opened the skies to human flight. But could they have achieved such great heights without the wind beneath their wings—their sister? Katharine Wright was her brothers' biggest champion, official spokesperson, closes
AirSpace Revisited: How Do You Sleep?
AirSpace Revisited: How Do You Sleep? May 28, 2026 26:50 One of the most commonly asked questions about living and working in space is where and how the astronauts sleep. Watching the astronauts set up their sleeping arrangements on the recent Artemis II mission around the moon got us thinking about this topic again, so we're revisiting a favorite episode from 2022. Sleeping in space goes back almost as far as there have been people in space (s
Whirly-Girl #13
Whirly-Girl #13 May 14, 2026 27:43 In the late 1940s and early 1950s, helicopters were creating quite a buzz. After limited use during World War II, manufacturers ramped up production and enthusiasm for vertical flight soared. Although the dream of “a helicopter in every garage” never quite materialized, more civilian pilots earned their helicopter ratings. One of them was Jean Ross Howard, who became the 13th woman in the
Snoopy in the Sky
Snoopy in the Sky Apr 23, 2026 21:45 IT'S A BIRD! IT'S A PLANE! IT'S A . . . DOGHOUSE? Throughout Charles Schulz's Peanuts stories, Snoopy has used his incomparable imagination to go on iconic aviation and space adventures. He's transformed himself into a World War I flying ace, a charter pilot, an astronaut, and even a helicopter. Today on AirSpace, we learn how Charlie Brown's best friend Snoopy became a bona fide aerospac
GO, SPEED RACERS! The 1929 Women's Air Derby
GO, SPEED RACERS! The 1929 Women's Air Derby Apr 9, 2026 27:14 SPEED . . . SKILL . . . SABOTAGE? In August 1929, twenty pilots took off from Santa Monica in a historic and thrilling air race. The all-female lineup—including big names like Amelia Earhart, Pancho Barnes, and Louise Thaden—hopped from city to city across the U.S. on their way to the finish line in Cleveland. Though it was dismissed by some at the time as the "Powder Puff Derby," the Wom
A Tale of Two Satellites
A Tale of Two Satellites Mar 26, 2026 40:51 In the Cold War, space was a new and critical frontier for intelligence. Many early satellites were spy satellites (although they did a bit of science, too). In this episode, we learn about two early U.S. spy satellite programs, GRAB and CORONA. We learn what motivated these programs, why they were so important to future satellite development, and how to recover film capsules mid-air usin
Scandalous
Scandalous Mar 12, 2026 25:01 Today on AirSpace: the scandal of the century! Matt and Emily are joined by friend of the show and Museum curator Bob van der Linden to learn all the twists and turns of the Air Mail Crisis of 1934.The controversy centered on one question: who should fly the mail? Conflicts between brand-new commercial airlines, Congress, and the Roosevelt administration reached a boiling point that led t
Kings of the Capsule
Kings of the Capsule Feb 26, 2026 38:58 July 24th, 1969. After their historic mission to the Moon’s surface and back, there was one final step in the Apollo 11 mission: splashdown. As the command module floated (gracefully, we are sure) in the Pacific Ocean, a team of elite Navy divers known as Frogmen swam up to help the astronauts safely and securely onto a helicopter that would take them to the USS Hornet. Today on AirSpace,

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