Air Force photograph by SSgt. Melanie Holochwost U.S. Air Force Academy Cadet 2nd Class Warren Saunders launches an RQ-11B Raven small unmanned aircraft system during an initial qualification training course June 5, 2013, at Choctaw Airfield, Fla. The Raven is a lightweight, low-altitude SUAS that provides real-time imagery directly to the user. Eleven U.S. Air…

NASA photograph This 1960 image provided by NASA shows Neil Armstrong standing by an X-15 rocketplane after a test flight. Armstrong later went on to become the first man to walk on the moon. A bill in Congress wants to rename the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in Southern California after the Apollo 11 astronaut…

Courtesy photograph An F-35A conventional take-off and landing aircraft completed the first in-flight missile launch of an AIM-120 over the Point Mugu Sea test range June 5, 2013. An F-35A conventional takeoff and landing aircraft completed the first in-flight missile launch of an AIM-120 over the Point Mugu Sea Test Range, June 5. It was…

Northrop Grumman photograph Northrop Grumman engineer Jeremy Alonso launches a remotely controlled aircraft as Julia Tang watches. Tang, a senior at Redondo Beach (Calif.) Union High School, designed and built the aircraft as part of Northrop Grumman’s High School Involvement Partnership (HIP), an award-winning mentoring program with local schools. HIP gives high school seniors the…

NASA photograph NASA’s DC-8 airborne science laboratory. NASA aircraft will take to the skies over the southern United States this summer to investigate how air pollution and natural emissions, which are pushed high into the atmosphere by large storms, affect atmospheric composition and climate. NASA will conduct its most complex airborne science campaign of the…

Air Force photo by MSgt. Michelle Alexander Second Lts. Chad James (left) and Jeremy Mooney, Lt. Col. Timothy Moser, Kevin Saighman, and Maj. Carrie Register, all members of the 451st Flying Training Squadron, pose for a photo in front of a modified T-1 Jayhawk before its first flight June 4, 2013 at Naval Air Station…

A flash of light from a stellar outburst has provided a rare look at the 3-D structure of material ejected by an erupting nova. Astronomers used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to observe the light emitted by the close double-star system T Pyxidis, or T Pyx, a recurring nova, during its latest outburst in April 2011….

Photograph courtesy of iRobot The iRobot Warrior, using a tool on the end of its arm, is able to grab, lift and carry heavy items. The arm can lift up to 350 pounds and the Warrior can carry a payload of up to 150 pounds. A small car can’t pull a heavy trailer. Sports utility…

The Air Force appointed the service’s first female chief scientist to lead the way in the technology and science fields. Dr. Mica Endsley assumed her new duties and responsibilities as the 34th chief scientist June 3 in support of Air Force senior leaders and Airmen across the service. “Having served on the Air Force Scientific…

Air Force photograph by SrA. Brett Clashman Senior Airman Jonathon Hartman, 7th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron crew chief, Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, marshals in a B-1B Lancer during Green Flag-West 11-10 Sept. 20, 2011, at Nellis AFB, Nev. With a career that spans across three decades and a war fighting reputation that rivals nearly every…