Space: A History of Space Exploration in Photographs [Paperback]

Andrew Chaikin (Author), Captain James A. Lovell (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2004

"The photographs in this book capture a vision of the Heavens and our Earth with a crystal clarity which we are lucky enough to see with our own eyes."
- Tom Hanks

"The immensity... the beauty... the challenge... the triumph and the tragedies... are captured in Andy Chaikin's elegant photo history."
- Neil Armstrong

Evocative, dramatic and fascinating, Space is a brilliant collection of more than 300 images that pay tribute to and trace the history of space exploration.

This book covers fifty years of this immense human endeavor that started in earnest during the Cold War:

• Early theories on space travel
• Pioneering flights by the Soviets
• NASA's earliest missions
• Apollo moon landings
• The space shuttle
• Space probes and space stations
• The future of space exploration.

The images -- some very rare -- have been painstakingly researched from American, Russian and other space programs. As a result, this book is both a historical record of this astonishing era and a portfolio of the most stunning scenes ever photographed.

(20041206)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

From Yuri Gagarin to the no-names riding the International Space Station (ISS), people in spacesuits are the focus of this lavish pictorial chronicle of human spaceflight. Compiler Chaikin clearly intends to restore awe for the human traveler in space. He achieves the desired effect through choosing both famous space-age photos, such as John Glenn inside his capsule or Edwin Aldrin standing on the Moon, and less often seen images. Those of Neil Armstrong grinning in the cockpit of the X-15 rocket plane (and inside the LEM after his moon walk) bespeak the cool technical confidence of astronauts. Yet when Chaikin arrives at the era of space stations, the pictures of people in pedestrian poses are less awe-inspiring. But if the ISS is an expensive bore, the images returned by current robotic spacecraft are much more exciting. Collecting a gallery of Hubble photos, Chaikin restores the thrill. Sure to entrance space enthusiasts. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Ethereal beauty... among the most stunning are images not just of something out there.... but of Earth itself. (John Kalbfleisch Montreal Gazette 200502)

Deftly increases the readers' knowledge... incredible book... Text explains the photos and helps introduce each chapter. Photos, however, dominate. (Susan Allen VOYA 200411)

The collection recaptures the excitement of the moon race and concludes with pictures taken by the still-active Mars rovers. (Dan Vergano USA Today 200412)

Chosen as one of the 'Best Books for Junior High and Young Adult 2005' by Science Books and Films. (Science Books and Films )

A visually stunning book... an excellent introduction to space exploration. (Barbara Kern E-Streams )

This beautiful book, filled with images to marvel at and savor, is a book to linger over. (Science Books and Films )

Truly elegant...In this wonderful book, [Chaikin] shares his passion for space, and it is a remarkable gift to us all. (Bob Merrick COPA Flight (Canadian Owners and Pilots Assoc) )

Generous dimensions make the examination of its 200 color and 100 black and white high quality images a visual delight. (Pierre Gauthier Canadian Camera )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Firefly Books (October 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1552979873
• ISBN-13: 978-1552979877
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 11.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,122,775 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book delivers!, September 13, 2002

By 

Jim McDade (Birmingham, AL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Space (Hardcover)

Andy Chaikin has chosen some of the most beautiful photographic vistas from the Space Age and packaged them into this wonderful book. This is one book that you want to thumb through slowly as you take in the fantastic views of the incredible sights that humans and space probes have brought back to us since the dawning years of the space age.

Space photography and imaging has given the human race a view of some of the most unimaginable wonders of our universe. We also see the miraculous images of humans and their fantastical machines in a realm long thought impossible to reach. This book beautifully documents all of the key milestones along our greatest journey. These images, taken together, capture one of the more hopeful and forward-looking pieces of the human story.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spectacular!!!!, November 20, 2002

By 

John R. Keller (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Space (Hardcover)

Andrew Chaikin is best known for his classic book "A Man on the Moon" which describes the Apollo missions to the moon and was basis for the equally classic HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon." In his latest offering, Andrew Chaikin presents the history of space exploration from the early space pioneers, through the space race, to the latest space shuttle missions to the International Space Station (ISS) using numerous high quality, large format photographs and a very small amount of introductory text for each chapter. I feel that this book will be another one of his classic space exploration books.

The book opens with a small discussion of the early space pioneers such as Wernher von Braun, Sergei Korolev and Robert Goddard, and their efforts to develop workable rockets. The book then moves into the dawn of the space age and the race between Russia and the United States to achieve various "firsts." For example, the first satellite, the first probe to the moon or another planet and of course the first country to put a man into space. After this portion of the book, the Mercury, Gemini, Vostok, Voskhod and early Apollo programs are examined. The next section is devoted to NASA's exploration of the moon and contains many full page photographs. To further emphasis the grandeur of these missions of exploration, there are several two page foldouts. The next chapter of the book covers the early robotic exploration of the solar system, up to and including the Viking and Voyager missions. The next portion of the book examines the space shuttle era. It is here that I feel that the book should have included more. While the space shuttle has been flying for over twenty years, there is less than twenty pages of shuttle related photographs. The book concludes with the current robotic exploration of the solar system, some really excellent photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope and the construction of the International Space Station.

I only have two minor criticisms about the book. First, most of the photographs are devoted to the space race up to the Apollo moon landings, with very little dedicated to the Space Shuttle and International Space Station projects. Secondly, many of the photographs are ones that have been published before so there is very little new here. Nevertheless, these two very minor complaints, are overshadowed by the splendor of the numerous high quality photographs is this book.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautifully Illustrated Book Verifies 1960's Moon Race, December 15, 2003

By 

Jan Peczkis "Scholar and Thinker" (Chicago IL, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Space (Hardcover)

This book is loaded with photographs as well as a historical narrative. What I found especially interesting was a series of photographs of the unsuccessful Soviet effort to beat the US to the moon in the late 1960's. These include the large new Soviet booster rocket that kept exploding shortly after launch, as well as a scaled-down (one man) Soviet lunar module that was never used. This information exposes the falsehood, advanced against the US Apollo Program at the time by certain left-wing circles, that posited that there had been no moon race because the Soviets ostensibly never had intended to land men on the moon. They certainly did--and they failed.