Customer Reviews

Space Shuttle Operator's Manual, Revised Edition

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you're part of the increasing number of teachers who are involved in space science education, this book is a great candidate for use as a basic text. It consolidates all the information you need to teach about the space shuttle and is particularly useful if your school is involved in space shuttle simulations -- an idea whose time has come. It's amazing how many schools use this book as part of their space science simulation program. You'll find the lift-off scipt, glossary, and detailed diagrams very useful.

Recommended reading for space cadets of all ages. Study up! The information packed in this manual will come in handy for those nerve-racking mission simulations at Space Camp/Space Academy.

Especially good are the pull-out schematics of the orbiter's control panels.

And the diagram of the improved field joint on the SRBs is helpful in understanding the Challenger accident. Although it would be more helpful if they also showed the original joint construction.

This is the best book on how to live, work, and live in space. It tells you all about the buttons, the menus, the toilets, the suits, etc. It even has like 7 pages for the launch with the dialogues and everything starting at T-minus 5 hours to T+plus 48 minutes. It has the same for landing, too. It tells you what's inside the shuttle, and where the stuff is located. It even describes certain space missions like Spacelab, and more! If you want to study space shuttles and become an astronaut, this book is a must! I love it! I can't stop putting it down!

The Space Shuttle Operators Manual shows how the occupants aboard the Space Shuttle live and work from lift-off to main gear touch down. The manual even gives maps and fold out displays with the Shuttle panels printed on it. It also tell what to do during an emergancy ex...fire in capsule. This book has made me look at the Space Shuttle Program differently and I hope to pursue my dream of becoming Commander of the Space Shuttle.

This book is the best overview and reference manual on the shuttle. As you can see from the "Look Inside" function, and by the index, it covers the whole nine yards. It focuses specifically on the orbiter, and covers all aspects of shuttle missions from launch to landing.

As an aspiring sci-fi writer, I found this book to be the perfect reference. It has raw statistics, such as orbiter length, cargo bay volume, and it even goes over the meals and menus and how they are prepared. It also goes in to the history of the orbiters, and the names of the ever shrinking shuttle fleet.

Several sections deal with the now-defunct Spacelab modules. The Spacelab was the shuttle equivalent of a camper shell that sat in the cargo bay. It turned the shuttle into a mini space-station, and had several interchangeable modules. One section was a pressurized module with a battery of experiments, which was connected to the shuttle cockpit. Other sections included a multi-use pallet, and an experimental pallet. This Spacelab was retired in 1997, and has been replaced by the Spacehab modules, which was on the Columbia when it broke-up over Texas.

This book is written in the normal "Basic English" of instruction manuals, and can be understood by elementary school children. It also has many diagrams and pictures, which save many thousands of words of descriptions.

By the way, this book does explain how the space lavatory. In case you are curious, it is a normal commode with vacuum suction, although I have heard stories that it can smell at times.

This book's one weakness is that it is a bit impersonal. If you want to know about the emotions and reactions to life in spaces, another book may be better, such as Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff," of Homer Hickam's "Back to the Moon.". As you read this book, you must supply your own excitement and emotion to this book, since it is an operator's manual. It reads a bit like an encyclopedia, or dictionary, and not a novel.

After reading and referencing this book, I felt as if I had been on board!

The material in the book is what any shuttle fan would like to read about, but the paper and the quality of the printing isn't the best. I use my book as an autograph collection book that I get shuttle astronauts to autograph.

Purchased these as a Christmas Gift to myself and I'm very happy I did so!! The details and pictures are so cool and so informative!! I would highly recommend this book to other Space Shuttle Enthusiast!!

If you are into space and gadgets this book is for you...a really great insight into America's space program and what it is really like to be an astronaut on the space shuttle...too bad it reminds everyone of a past that we will never see again...

Great book!! Very detailed and informative - especially since there are only 2 more flights. What leadership we have in this country.... The book answers most any question of how is (or "was") the shuttle operated.

This is a fascinating book with lots of cool illustrations and diagrams. If you have kids, or still are one, buy this book. It's really neat.