posted 06-05-2007 04:28 PM               

Spaceflight: The Complete Story from Sputnik to Shuttle - And Beyond
By Giles Sparrow

• Hardcover: 360 pages
  
• DK (June 4, 2007)
  
• ISBN-10: 075662858X
  
• ISBN-13: 978-0756628581

It is an impressive tribute to space exploration in the 50 years since the first satellite, Sputnik 1 was launched in 1957. The volume begins by telling the ancient tales of the Greek scientist Hero's reaction motor and Chinese official Wan Hu's rocket chair, which upon his using, "He was never seen on Earth again."

Turning the page you learn about the Visionaries — Jules Verne, H.G. Wells and Kibalchich. Who is Nikolai Kibalchich, you ask? The 19th century Russian who came up with the gimballing or swiveling of the rocket engine that is used on almost every design of rocket today.

Not a historian or a space geek? Don't feel underprivileged; this book is the one to learn from. It is a well written and balanced history of world space exploration for teenagers to adults.

That's what I love and appreciate about DK books. They are researched and well written for anyone and everyone. A researcher or a child will get something out of any book they read. The DK photo researchers do a superlative job in obtaining illustrations and photography that tell the story. How do the crews get aboard the Soyuz spacecraft on the launch pad? See the rare photo on page 131. The richness of much of the photography can only come from original negatives. It is DK's reputation that allows them to go to experts and institutions around the world to obtain photography of many of the original artifacts and models. If those are unavailable then they have created beautiful computer renderings of such equipment.

"Spaceflight" is perhaps DK's best book ever to venture out into space. Every page heading has a calendar of the 50 years since Sputnik and then major subheadings that tell details involved in that event. The book also highlights biographical and technological data about systems, places and personalities involved with space exploration. People like Semenov, Feynman, Lewei, Clark, and Rutan. Early space plane concepts and the breaking the sound barrier are also covered, and always there are those magnificent DK cutaway drawings that allow you to see what makes the vehicles tick. Call-outs allow the reader to discover details they might find informative. Giles Sparrow has done a through job in telling the story of space exploration, and moonwalker Buzz Aldrin writes a revealing forward to the book. The acknowledgements in the back of the book read like a who's who of space historians with many prominent contributions.

The book covers all areas of spaceflight — the dawn of the space age, the race to the Moon, working together in space, satellites and space probes, and "into the future." It also covers many nations' and some commercial efforts in space exploration. From Sanger to SpaceShipOne, The Nedelin disaster, Veneras to Cassini, Vostok to Orion. Every Apollo lunar mission has its own section.

Throughout the book there are sections that will be of interest to the young and the collector in all of us. Like Space Age stamps and NASA mission patches (done correctly here without the collector Mercury patches that never flew with the astronauts). A very good glossary and index is included at the end of the book.

This is a magnificent volume. My only major complaint is the Apollo spacecraft cutaway is inaccurate and displays the early and incomplete Block One spacecraft systems. DK has shown Apollo better in their earlier space related books.

posted 06-07-2007 01:13 AM               

I thought that Space@50 was too "conventional" in the sense that it's a history of spaceflight with well-known photos. I flipped through it rapidly and it's not one of my best buys.

posted 06-07-2007 11:31 AM               

I enjoyed the one concerning how the general public have failed to connect with the space programme due to the way NASA communicates with them — always underplaying the inherent difficulties of spaceflight and the enormous logistical triumph of actually completing a mission to LEO, never mind the moon! "If it sounds simple," thinks Joe Public, "it must be easy, routine and boring." so he switches off!

Funnily enough, despite the Space@50 coming across initially as a coffee table book, I think the appeal of its literary content would lie more with longer term enthusiasts than newcomers searching for a historical rundown of events, mainly due to the nature of Bizony's essays. They are points of view and reflective pieces that attempt to put events into historical perspective, discussing things that we are already familiar with. For this reason, I found it refreshingly "different."