Spacecraft


Book Description

Spacecraft takes a long look at humankind's attempts and advances in leaving Earth through incredible illustrations and authoritatively written profiles on Sputnik, the International Space Station, and beyond. In 1957, the world looked on with both uncertainty and amazement as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first man-made orbiter. Sputnik 1 would spend three months circling Earth every 98 minutes and covering 71 million miles in the process. The world’s space programs have traveled far (literally and figuratively) since then, and the spacecraft they have developed and deployed represent almost unthinkable advances for such a relatively short period. This ambitiously illustrated aerospace history profiles and depicts spacecraft fromSputnik 1 through the International Space Station, andeverything in between, including concepts that have yet to actually venture outside the Earth’s atmosphere. Illustrator and aerospace professional Giuseppe De Chiara teams up with aerospace historian Michael Gorn to present a huge, profusely illustrated, and authoritatively written collection of profiles depicting and describing the design, development, and deployment of these manned and unmanned spacecraft. Satellites, capsules, spaceplanes, rockets, and space stations are illustrated in multiple-view, sometimes cross-section, and in many cases shown in archival period photography to provide further historical context. Dividing the book by era, De Chiara and Gorn feature spacecraft not only from the United States and Soviet Union/Russia, but also from the European Space Agency and China. The marvels examined in this volume include the rockets Energia, Falcon 9, and VEGA; the Hubble Space Telescope; the Cassini space probe; and the Mars rovers, Opportunity and Curiosity. Authoritatively written and profusely illustrated with more than 200 stunning artworks, Spacecraft: 100 Iconic Rockets, Shuttles, and Satellites That Put Us in Space is sure to become a definitive guide to the history of manned space exploration.




The Missile and Space Race


Book Description

Here is a history of the development of military missiles and space travel from World War II to the American visits to the Moon in 1969-1972. It stresses the relationship between the early stages of space exploration and the arms race, and that a dual path led to space flight. One was the development of unmanned long-range war rockets, the other, less often noted, was the rocket-powered research plane. The first path led through the intercontinental ballistic missile to the first artificial satellites and space capsule; the latter, more uniquely American, through the X-series and Skyrocket rocket planes to the X-15, and ultimately to the Space Shuttle. The early part of the book focuses on the Soviet-American race to develop the ICBM in the 1950s, and the first satellites, with particular attention paid to the events and reactions that followed the flight of Sputnik I in 1957 and the subsequent missile gap era.







Missiles, Rockets and Satellites


Book Description







Space Systems Failures


Book Description

The very first book on space systems failures written from an engineering perspective. Focuses on the causes of the failures and discusses how the engineering knowledge base has been enhanced by the lessons learned. Discusses non-fatal anomalies which do not affect the ultimate success of a mission, but which are failures nevertheless. Describes engineering aspects of the spacecraft, making this a valuable complementary reference work to conventional engineering texts.