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Turns out NASA hasn’t been focusing all its energy on poking around in space.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has also been creating a unique and, now, very valuable art collection.

Chip and Batty Explore Space, by William Wegman. Courtesy NASA Art Program

It started back in 1962 with the creation of the NASA Art Program and ever since then the agency has been inviting well known artists to document the space program.

The work includes paintings, drawings photographs, sculptures and other media by the likes of Annie Leibovitz, Nam June Paik, Robert Rauschenberg, Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol, William Wegman (above) and Jamie Wyeth.

Curious to see what they’ve got? Starting Saturday, May 28, 2011, more than 70 pieces from the collection go on view in Washington, D.C. at the National Air and Space Museum.

Here are a few more samples:

This 1965 painting by Norman Rockwell shows astronauts John Young and Gus Grissom suiting up for the first flight of the Gemini program in March 1965. As in the William Wegman photo above, NASA loaned Norman Rockwell a spacesuit so the work would be as accurate as possible.

Liftoff at 15 seconds by Jack Perlmutter, 1982

Space Shuttle Columbia rises from Kennedy Space Center on its third flight into space, on March 22, 1982.

These and close to 70 other space-related art pieces from NASA’s collection are on display as part of NASA | ART: 50 Years of Exploration at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. May 28 – October 9, 2011.

Thanks, NASA!

Categories: Air Travel, Art, Exhibits, Space
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(Beatle John Lennon and Yoko Ono at Heathrow Airport May 23, 1969)

Here’s a great slide show: Singers at airports.

66 (!) photos of singers – and a few actors – arriving and departing at airports. It popped up in a variety of on-line places this week and I can’t quite tell which one of these images are my favorite.

Bing Crosby in London in 1965…

Mick Jagger – in a lovely checked outfit – and Marianne Faithfull in 1969

Or Snoop Dogg arriving earlier this month at Heathrow Airport.

Categories: Airports, Entertainment
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Vancouver Airport has one in the terminal, Newark airport has one on airport property, but Dallas-Fort Worth Airport is slated to get what is being billed as the first 7-Eleven inside the secured gate areas at an airport.

The first secure-side 7-Eleven will be one of several new concessions that are part of a remodel going on in Terminal A, but come 2013, travelers will be able to sip slurpees between flights and take Big Gulps with them onto the airplanes.

Categories: Food
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Do you read the airline magazine tucked into the seatback pocket?

A lot of these publications are getting awfully thin and awfully boring.  A few have disappeared altogether.

And some have popped up on-line.

Take a look at the latest issue of KLM’s iFly magazine.

The theme is “Light” and there are loads of great images, stories, videos, music, and audio clips and interviews.

There’s an interview with an astronaut, tips on visiting Berlin, a variety of other great multi-media features and an incredible slide-show of photographs by Censi Goepel and Jens Warnecke, who create images with amazing light effects.

The story includes videos showing how the duo make some of the images.

Categories: Air Travel, Photos, Travel tips, Uncategorized
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Back in 2000, Austin was a very high-tech place and the Austin Bergstrom International Airport was perhaps the first airport to have Wi-Fi available in the terminal.

The service wasn’t free, but least it was there.

Now, of course, pretty much every airport is wired and, increasingly, the service is offered for free.

For some reason, Austin’s airport has been a free Wi-Fi holdout.

Not anymore: the Austin airport has worked out a deal with Boingo Wireless to offer complimentary Wi-Fi service. But it’s a hybrid system:

Travelers will only get one complimentary Wi-Fi session each 24 hours, so if you’re doing more than just sending a quick email, you’ll have to pony up and pay for additional, more robust, service.

There are however, some free internet access kiosks at Gates 5, 8, 11, 15, 21 and in baggage claim.

Paid options include: $4.95 for one hour, $7.95 for a day pass, or $9.95 for a month of unlimited access at all of Boingo’s North and South America hotspot locations. If you’re working on an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch, you can buy one-hour Boingo credits for $1.99 at the iTunes Store.

And if you do find yourself stuck at Austin-Bergstrom Airport, there are plenty of reasons not to spend all your time on the computer.

Austin’s airport has a great deal of art and an ambitious Music in the Air concert series that includes close to a dozen live in-terminal concerts a week.

Categories: free Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi
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