posted 09-19-2016 09:24 AM               

Highlighting men and women across the globe who have dedicated themselves to pushing the limits of space exploration, this book surveys the programs, technological advancements, medical equipment, and automated systems that have made space travel possible. This is the complete story of manned space flight.

Beginning with the eighteenth-century invention of balloons that lifted early explorers into the stratosphere, Ted Spitzmiller describes how humans first came to employ lifting gasses such as hydrogen and helium. He traces the influence of nineteenth-century science fiction writers on the development of rocket science, looks at the role of rocket societies in the early twentieth century, and discusses the use of rockets in World War II warfare.

Moving into the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War era, Spitzmiller outlines the engineering and space medicine advances that finally enabled humans to fly beyond the earth's atmosphere. He recreates the excitement felt around the world at the first orbital flights of Yuri Gagarin and John Glenn. He recounts triumphs such as Neil Armstrong's "one small step" and tragedies such as the Challenger and Columbia disasters.

The story enters the present day with the development of the International Space Station, NASA's interest in asteroids and Mars, and the emergence of China as a major player in the space arena. Spitzmiller shows the impact of space flight on human history and speculates on the future of exploration beyond our current understandings of physics and the known boundaries of time and space.

• Hardcover: 624 pages
  
• University Press of Florida (April 26, 2017)
  
• ISBN-10: 0813054273
  
• ISBN-13: 978-0813054278

posted 11-22-2016 09:20 AM               

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Originally posted by heng44:
How is it possible that the cover photo is reversed, with the flag as an obvious reference?

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The cover photo features an astronaut with the right shoulder reversed flag, which is meant to symbolize the flag flying in the breeze, as it appears on many government uniforms, aircraft, and other equipment.

posted 11-22-2016 10:37 AM               

Particularly noteworthy on this photo/mission, since the addition of the flag to the suit occurred for the first time on Gemini IV, and specifically the flag was added because the crew was told they could not have another mission emblem (or a name for the spacecraft). The crew was going to name the spacecraft the "American Eagle" and therefore when they were told they could not use the name, they decided to go with the flag.

Also the photo is noteworthy because for most of the time during the spacewalk, White kept the gas gun in his right hand, though for this image it was in his left.

posted 01-14-2017 08:49 PM            

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Originally posted by cspg:
Apparently, there's a new trend at NASA which consists of reversing pre-2000 photos...

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