An introduction to the history of launching people into space, this visual vault introduces the subject with immediacy. The volume hopes, writes moonwalker Buzz Aldrin in a foreword, to inspire the next generation of space travelers, and the design certainly arrests attention. In more than 800 photographs organized on two-page spreads, the album introduces theoreticians of space technology such as Konstantin Tsiolkovskii; explains the evolving technology with arrowed diagrams of rockets, capsules, and space suits; dramatizes landmark space missions from Sputnik to China's recent launches of taikonauts; and reproduces images of space-age paraphernalia, such as postal stamps and mission patches. A positive distinction of the presentation is its national balance: the Soviet space program is amply pictured, especially its successes with space stations, and the space activities of Europe, India, and Japan are depicted as well. Aiming for breadth, the author also describes robotic planetary missions; includes several spectaculars from the Hubble Space Telescope; and points to future directions of private spaceships and NASA's proposed successors to the space shuttle. Space browsers will gravitate to this colorful tome.
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