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Overview
From the first experimentation with rocket technology in the early 20th century to the Mir space station and the Mars Pathfinder mission of 1997, this one-stop guide to space exploration provides a wealth of information for student researchers. Combining narrative description, analytical essays, a timeline, biographical profiles, and the text of key primary documents, Roger D. Launius, Chief Historian of NASA, provides the latest information and analysis on all aspects of space exploration. Four essays give a historical overview of space exploration and up-to-date examinations of the race to the moon, exploration of the solar system, space stations and space shuttles, and U.S.-Soviet cooperative ventures. Ready reference features include: a timeline of key events; biographical profiles of 24 American and Soviet space pioneers; the text of 20 key primary documents relating to space exploration initiatives; a table of American space flight since 1961; and an annotated bibliography of works on space history.Synopsis
The most up-to-date one-stop source of information, analysis, biographical profiles, and key primary documents on space exploration.
Children's Literature
Launius, historian for NASA, and an assembled a group of experts offers an historical perspective on the space program as part of the "Guides to Historic Events of the Twentieth Century" series. The book begins with a chronology of events, beginning with Oberth's paper on rocket propulsion in 1923 through late 1997 when the space shuttle Atlantis docked with the space station Mir. Next, there are four highly readable chapters that offer an historical overview, discuss the race to the moon, recap scientific explorations, and discuss a permanent presence in space. In addition, there are 24 biographies, including American as well as Soviet astronauts and the some of the NASA officials and scientists behind the development of rocket technology. A sampling of 20 primary documents related to the development of the space program (including the U.S. Policy on Outer Space (1958), President Kennedy's paper which called the space program an "urgent national need", and flight crew recollections of Apollo 11) along with a discussion regarding further Mars exploration rounds out this book. The appendix contains a listing of American space flights from 1961 through 1997, giving the spacecraft name, launch date, crew, flight time, and highlights. An annotated bibliography of books, film and video works, in addition to the comprehensive index, will spur the reader to further exploration.