Customer Reviews

Astronautics: Book 1: Dawn of the Space Age (Apogee Books Space Series) (Bk. 1)

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Spitzmiller has done an excellent job of presenting the step by step progress of man's first forays into space. He has included a detailed history of the technoloical evolution leading to what we now term "rocket science".
The book sets the context of this evolution by describing the pesonalities and their contributions: discoveries, inventions, and inovations, making this a very human story. There is comprehensive coverage of technical information about rockets and space dynamics, the crucial keys to space travel, but this information is always presented in very understandable terms.
The effect of Cold War politics on space development is covered very well as is the reaction of the world to Sputnik, the first Earth satellite.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in gaining more insight into the human, technical, and political aspects of mankind's first efforts to conquer space.

"Dawn of the Space Age" was a fabulous trip back through time. Each moment I spent within the pages of the book, I was re-living the visions, struggles, dangers, failures, achievements and excitement of the space age. The author portrayed the real story and events that motivated and shaped space development.

For a real space buff/nut this is is pretty superficial stuff. For a $24.95 relatively thin paperback I would like to have seen more illustrations and preferably color ones, and a lot deeper information. For my money I wanted a lot more.