The X-47B prototype on Tuesday flew off an aircraft carrier and into the history books. Today's achievement, the first-ever catapult launch of an unmanned aircraft from the flight deck of a carrier, promises to open up a new chapter in the annals of naval aviation. Photo: An X-47B pilot-less drone combat aircraft is launched for the first time off an aircraft carrier, the USS George H. W. Bush, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Virginia, May 14, 2013. The U.S. Navy made aviation history on Tuesday by catapulting an unmanned jet off an aircraft carrier for the first time, testing a long-range, stealthy, bat-winged plane that represents a jump forward in drone technology. (Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters)

In this photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, the Russian tanker Renda powers toward Nome, Alaska with the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy's assistance January 6, 2012 in the Bering Sea. (Photo by Sara Francis/U.S. Coast Guard via Getty Images)

In northwest Russia, in a small village called Alekhovshchina, Nadia Sablin's aunts spend the warmer months together in the family home and live as the family has always lived, chopping wood to heat the house and making their own clothes. Sablin's book of photographs, “Aunties: The Seven Summers of Alevtina and Ludmila”, is published by Duke University Press. Here: “Two-Handed Saw, 2014”. (Photo by Nadia Sablin)

France's Juliette Ducordeau (Front R) and fellow athletes react after crossing the finish line of the Women's Mass Start 10 km Free event at the FIS Tour de Ski stage on January 8, 2023 in Val di Fiemme. (Photo by Marco Bertorello/AFP Photo)

Beta Tools Speed Up's Spanish rider Alonso Lopez crashes out in the early stages of the Moto2 race at the MotoGP Australian Grand Prix in Phillip Island on October 22, 2023. (Photo by Paul Crock/AFP Photo)

A person wears socks on shoes, as people queue to enter Liberty Inauguration ball, on inauguration day of Donald Trump's second presidential term, in Washington, U.S. January 20, 2025. (Photo by Jeenah Moon/Reuters)

Russia's Soyuz-FG booster rocket with the space capsule Soyuz TMA-16M that will carry a new crew to the International Space Station (ISS) is transported from the hangar to the launch pad in Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, March 25, 2015. (Photo by Dmitry Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Shoppers walk past crocodiles for sale at a market in Bata on February 3, 2015. Markets in Equatorial Guinea sell a variety of animals including pangolins, monkeys and crocodiles as food. (Photo by Carl De Souza/AFP Photo)