America In Space: NASA's First Fifty Years - Hardcover

Dick, Steven; Jacobs, Robert; Moore, Constance; Ulrich, Bertram

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810993732 ISBN 13: 9780810993730

Publisher: Abrams Books, 2007

Synopsis

NASA launches a yearlong celebration of its 50th anniversary in the fall of 2007, and Abrams is privileged to publish this visual history of its many achievements in manned and unmanned space travel. Written and edited by a team of experienced NASA staffers, and illustrated with many unpublished and rare photographs from the voluminous NASA archives scattered across the country, America in Space offers an unparalleled vision of half a century of exploration and discovery.

The story of America’s space age is told with more than 400 carefully selected images. The story begins in the 1950s with intrepid test pilots venturing ever faster and higher, and opens out into the now-legendary Mercury and Apollo missions of the 1960s that made astronauts into national heroes. The space shuttle era shows us what everyday space travel might look like, while grand vistas of the universe expand our sense of wonder. The large format of the book captures both the human drama and the vast scale of NASA’s projects. America in Space is a photographic record of the greatest adventure of our time.

About this title

About the Author:

America in Space is the work of many people. The main contributors to the project are Steven Dick, NASA Chief Historian; Robert Jacobs, NASA Media Services Director; Constance Moore, NASA Visual Information Specialist; and Bertram Ulrich, Curator, NASA Art Program. Astronaut Neil Armstrong was the first human to set foot on the moon. The lunar crater, Armstrong, located near the Apollo 11 landing site, was named in his honor.

From Publishers Weekly:

The most memorable photographs from America's recent explorations of space have been taken by the Hubble space telescope and the Huygens mission to Saturn. But as the editors of this lavishly illustrated coffee-table volume demonstrate, in the early years of the space program, the camera's blinking eye captured human beings. Dick, NASA's chief historian, and his NASA colleagues offer images of the crew-cut young hot rods of the Mercury and Gemini programs before they became household names, along with a young test pilot named Neil Armstrong in 1956 operating a simulator of the X-15 hypersonic aircraft. Photographs capture the grandeur of the mammoth Saturn rockets blasting off, as well as the tragedy of the fire-charred Apollo 1 capsule. NASA's engineers and technicians receive their due, shown putting equipment and astronauts through their paces. In the post-Apollo years, the almost forgotten Skylab is memorialized, as well as missions to build the International Space Station and the space shuttle program. The book concludes with pictures of the outer reaches of the solar system and stunning vistas light-years away. NASA staff have annotated the photographs with informative miniessays documenting the history of the agency and its mission. Space buffs and their children will thrill to these photos. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Abrams Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0810993732
• ISBN 13: 9780810993730
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352
• Editor: Armstrong Neil