Bats are the only mammals that truly fly. And the way they do it is very different from other flying things. The way they fly has only recently been understood and there are still questions. Scientist and engineers are trying to use what they do know to create bat-inspired flying machines, but things like bats self-cambering stretching wings skin, skeleton muscles and tiny hair sensors are proving difficult to replicate. 

Thanks to our guests in this episode:

Find the transcript here.

AirSpace is created by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum with generous support from Lockheed Martin.

There are a lot of different aircraft that fight wildfires, from Host Matt's favorite Sky Crane helicopter to giant cargo jets that dump tons of fire retardant. But today we're taking about a truly unique, purpose-built firefighting airplane: the Super Scooper. This plane skims the surface of a body of water, collects a shocking amount through tiny scoop ports, flies off, and dumps it on a wildfire. We talk to a pilot about what it's like to fly one.

Thanks to our guest in this episode:

• Scott Blue, Pilot, Bridger Aerospace

Find the transcript here.

AirSpace is created by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum with generous support from Lockheed Martin.

If you haven't listened already, go back and check out Part One. When you hear 'space race' you probably (correctly) think about the 1960s Soviet Union v. U.S. race to put an astronaut on the Moon. But a few hundred years before, the space race was all about Venus. About twice every century we here on Earth get to see Venus pass in the front of the Sun. Back the 18th and 19th centuries, this was a Big Deal. At the time, all astronomers wanted to be the first to use the transit of Venus to figure out the distance between the Earth and the Sun. In Part Two we're bringing you more adventures to observe the transit and talking about what the result (or lack of results) meant for astronomy.

Thanks to our guests in this episode:

Find the transcript here.

AirSpace is created by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum with generous support from Lockheed Martin.

When you hear 'space race' you probably (correctly) think about the 1960s Soviet Union v. U.S. race to put an astronaut on the Moon. But a few hundred years before, the space race was all about Venus. Twice every century or so we here on Earth get to see Venus pass in front of the Sun (with proper eye protection. Don't stare at the Sun, kids.) Back in the 18th and 19th centuries, this was a Big Deal. At the time, all astronomers wanted to be part of the effort to use the transit of Venus to figure out the distance between the Earth and the Sun. And to claim that astronomical victory for their respective empire. In Part One we're talking about the astronomical breakthroughs that made scientists and adventurers flock to the 1761 transit. 

Thanks to our guests in this episode: 

Find the transcript here.

Sign up here for the monthly AirSpace newsletter

AirSpace is created by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum with generous support from Lockheed Martin.

The oldest Earth rocks we have are 4.3 billion years old, and samples we've brought back from the Moon are even older. But what does that have to do with craters on Mars? When the Apollo missions brought back samples, those rocks let us confirm the age of parts of our lunar bestie for the first time. Now, scientific models use data from those samples to extrapolate the age of other geologic events in our Solar System. 

Thanks to our guest in this episode: 

• Dr. Beau Bierhaus, Senior Research Scientist - Lockheed Martin*

Sign up here for the monthly AirSpace newsletter

Find the transcript here.

Take our listener survey at s.si.edu/airspace2025

Find the transcript here.

AirSpace is created by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum with generous support from Lockheed Martin.

*AirSpace is editorially independent from its sponsors

Right now there are seven women on Mars... kind of. The women of Hypatia Mars started out as a small group of friends from Catalonia who wanted to work together tp advance space science and women in STEM. Today they're on their second analog mission at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, testing systems and equipment, doing multidisciplinary research, and continuously working to reach out to girls and young women about what their careers are like.

Thanks to our guests in this episode: 

Sign up here for the monthly AirSpace newsletter

Take our listener survey at s.si.edu/airspace2025

Find the transcript here.

AirSpace is created by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum with generous support from Lockheed Martin

We want to hear from you! Fill out our listener survey at s.si.edu/airspace2025

All the military aircraft and some of the civilian ones in our collections have to be demilitarized before they go on display or into storage. This process, usually called demilling, means taking anything out that might leak, corrode, explode or give away military secrets.

Thanks to our guest in this episode:

• Dr. Mike Hankins, Curator of Modern Military Aviation-National Air and Space Museum

Find the transcript here.

Sign up here for the monthly AirSpace newsletter

AirSpace is created by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum with generous support from Lockheed Martin.

We want to hear from you! Fill out our listener survey at s.si.edu/airspace2025

Our museum collection, like a lot of other museums' collections, can be a working collection. That means that scientist come to do air or space research using objects in the museum. Sometimes it's as simple as an engineer coming after hours to look a little closer at a plane or spacecraft so they can better understand how it works. And other times researchers leave seismometers on the Viking Lander for several weeks. 

Thanks to our guests in this episode: 

Additional thanks to Lisa Young and Becca Hiatt of the National Air and Space Museum's Collections Processing Unit

Find the transcript here

Sign up here for the monthly AirSpace newsletter

AirSpace is created by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum with generous support from Lockheed Martin

In the lead up to Season 10 we're reviving some of our favorite episodes. Today we bring you Emily's favorite, The Ninety-Nines. 

It took a certain amount of pure grit to be a pilot in the early days of aviation – and even more for the women who had to defy convention just to get up in the air.  And if you’re thinking the only aviatrix was Amelia Earhart – think again. She was just one of a daring group of women aviators who were walking on wings, flying under bridges, breaking altitude records, and racing across the country – in the 1920s! 

Join Emily, Matt, and Nick as they explore the history of the Ninety-Nines, the organization of women pilots originally led by Earhart and still active today. Documentary-maker Heather Taylor sets the scene of the thrilling and dangerous first Women’s National Air Derby in 1929. And Emily discovers an amazing view in her first non-commercial flight (in a tiny four-seater!) with modern-day Ninety-Nine Judy Shaw.

Sign up here for the monthly AirSpace newsletter

In the lead up to Season 10 we're reviving some of our favorite episodes. Today we bring you Matt's favorite, Smoke from a Distant Fire.

Wildfire season is getting longer, according to the US Forest Service, making firefighting a bigger, more vital operation each year. In this episode, Emily, Matt, and Nick take a look at how the pros fight wildfires with everything from large water-carrying airtankers and helicopters to daring smokejumpers who parachute into the blaze equipped with axes, shovels, and chainsaws. We’ll introduce you to a few of the people who put their lives on the line to keep us and our forests safe and discuss how changes in technology, climate, and communication are impacting aerial firefighting.

We’ll hear from Chelsea Cough, a smokejumper based in Missoula, Montana, about what it’s like to parachute into forest fires too remote to reach over land. And Matt travels out to Utah to the site of an active wildfire where over 1000 people were involved in coordinated air and ground efforts to contain and suppress the flames.

Sign up here for the monthly AirSpace newsletter