Overview

Explores the motivations, goals, trials, and triumphs of the people who pioneered space exploration from the 16th-century to the modern era. This book describes space travel's emergence from the pages of science fiction into the laboratories of 20th-century rocketeers. It offers a wide-ranging view of the attempt to explore the final frontier.

Full Product Details

Author:   Tom D. Crouch
Publisher:   Smithsonian Books
Imprint:   Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.70cm , Height: 3.10cm , Length: 30.50cm
Weight:   0.662kg
ISBN:  

9781560983866

ISBN 10:   1560983868
Pages:   352
Publication Date:   17 September 1999
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Unknown
Availability:   In Print  
Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Prologue: Spaceport! Chapter 2 1. A Plurality of Worlds Chapter 3 2. The Call of the Cosmos Chapter 4 3. Raketenrummel Chapter 5 4. An American Dreamer Chapter 6 5. Vergeltungswaffe! Chapter 7 6. Our Germans Chapter 8 7. Selling Space Flight Chapter 9 8. Fellow Travelers Chapter 10 9. This New Ocean Chapter 11 10. Racing to the Moon Chapter 12 11. The Giant Leap: Gemini Chapter 13 12. The Apollog Era Chapter 14 13. Men from Earth Chapter 15 14. Salyut and Skylab: Rooms with a View Chapter 16 15. The Shuttle Era Chapter 17 16. At Home in Orbit Chapter 18 17. Robot Servants and Explorers Chapter 19 18. Outward Bound

Reviews

Aiming for the Stars is much more than an informative guide to the past, present, and future of the space program. It is also an inspiring personal account of the men and women who sacrificed so much for all of us along the pathways to space. If you have only one book on your shelf about space history, make it this one. Even the most avid space-flight junkie will find something new on every page. -- Homer H. Hickam Jr., author of October Sky.

Subtitled 'The Dreamers and Doers of the Space Age', Crouch's fascinating volume is the kind of book we need today, as the first rush of exhilaration caused by space exploration is re-kindled after a period of stasis. Crouch aims at providing considerably more than a comprehensive guide to space programs of the past, present and future: he is also strong at conveying the personalities of the men and women behind the most astonishing endeavour of the human race - our faltering steps beyond the confines of this planet. Of course, that adventure is marked out in human lives as much as in the amazing moments we all remember (such as a man standing on the moon), and the author deals with all the dramas of the space race with equal intelligence. And he's also aware that many of us owe our enthusiasm for the subject to the galaxy-spanning imaginative leaps of science fiction books and films, treating these enthusiasms with just the required leavening of reality. If there is a caveat, it's the rather penny-plain black-and-white photos throughout, but Crouch is sufficiently acute a writer to conjure up this greatest of adventure with words alone. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Tom D. Crouch is senior curator of aeronautics at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and the author of numerous award-winning books on aerospace history.

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