Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program: Human Spaceflight: Projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo (Nasa History)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration [Compiler]; Logsdon, John M [Editor];

ISBN 10: 0160813816 / ISBN 13: 9780160813818

Published by United States Govt Printing Office, 2008

About this Item

Hardcover and dust jacket. Good binding and cover. Clean, unmarked pages. 857 pages, 25 cm.

Seller Inventory # 2503020030

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program: Human Spaceflight: Projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo (Nasa History)
• Publisher: United States Govt Printing Office
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0160813816
• ISBN 13: 9780160813818
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: As New
• Seller catalogs:
  • Science, Math, Space and Engineering

About this title

Synopsis

This volume contains over 100 key documents, many of which are published for the first time. Each is introduced by a headnote providing context, bibliographical details, and background information necessary to understand the document. These are organized into two chapters, each beginning with an essay that keys the documents to major events in the history

Review

ASTRONOMY NOW ONLINE (Website of the UK's best-selling astronomy magazine) by Reg Turnhill (portions excerpted 5/26/2009)
http: //astronomynow.com/books/AstronomyNow-BookReviews-ExploringtheUnknown.html
"This seventh volume of NASA's definitive history is timely, covering human spaceflight in the fortietch year since the first Moon landing. It has the full text of President Kennedy insisting in secret talks with the head of NASA in 1962 that putting a man on the Moon ahead of Russia must have top priority after defence. " We have to demonstrate that starting behind, as we did by a couple of years, by God, we passed them."
It also reveals that Buzz Aldrin, the second man to step on the Moon, has never been given the full credit for his technical work in making the landing possible. Even before joining NASA he had done much pioneering work on developing the procedures and tools necessary for spacecraft to rendezvous and dock while in orbit. Techniques he devised hav