Spaceflight: The Complete Story from Sputnik to Shuttle - And Beyond [Hardcover]

Giles Sparrow (Author), Buzz Aldrin (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 075662858X | ISBN-13: 978-0756628581 | Publication Date: June 4, 2007

Published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first space flight, this beautifully illustrated book about the history of man in space covers every detail of the quest for the final frontier, from the first spaceflight to today's missions and beyond. With a foreword by Buzz Aldrin and hundreds of photographs, Space Flight celebrates human achievement in outer space. AUTHOR BIO: Giles Sparrow studied astronomy at University College, London and science communication at Imperial College, London. He has acted as a consultant on and contributor to numerous popular science books. He is the author of several books, including The Universe and How to See It and was a major contributor to DK's Universe: The Definitive Visual Guide.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

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. Taylor, Gilbert

Review

"A feast for the eyes and a treat for the historian in all of us...a magnificent volume." -- Aerospace Legacy Foundation magazine

"A must-have for any space enthusiast's library." -- LAUNCH magazine

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 360 pages
• Publisher: DK ADULT (June 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 075662858X
• ISBN-13: 978-0756628581
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 10 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,098,643 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best Space Program books, June 22, 2007

By 

David Schure - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spaceflight: The Complete Story from Sputnik to Shuttle - And Beyond (Hardcover)

I have a collection of space books from DK's the Universe, Illustrated History of NASA, Atlas of the Universe, Apollo and now Space Flight. This book has a great many pictures of the historical figures from the space program as well as cutaways of rockets and spacecraft and of course space. In my opinion if you already own DK's universe. Get this book even though Universe has the space program in that book. This has more detail.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Outstanding Mini-Encyclopedia on Space Travel, July 7, 2008

By 

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

This review is from: Spaceflight (Hardcover)

In common with many other books on this subject, this one has many photos and descriptions of the major milestones in manned flight. It starts with early experiments with rockets, then Sputnik, Laika, and Gagarin, then the 1960's "space race" to the moon, which the US won, then Skylab, then the historic 1975 joint US-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz flight, then the Shuttle, etc. Each major milestone is described in a two-page facing format.

This book differs from most other books on this subject in two obvious ways. For one thing, it devotes a balance of attention to the American and Soviet space programs. Also, it provides many cutout drawings that help the reader understand technical details on the operation of rockets, spacecraft, and their components (for example, the Lunar Module, which ferried US astronauts from the lunar orbit to the lunar surface and back to lunar orbit).

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great encyclopedia of space, May 11, 2008

By 

Tahir Rahman (Kansas City, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spaceflight: The Complete Story from Sputnik to Shuttle - And Beyond (Hardcover)

A wonderful overview of the space program. The pictures are oversized and well presented. Good for the entire family or space enthusiast. I especially enjoyed the pages with diagrams that are packed with great information.

-Tahir Rahman, author of We Came in Peace for all Mankind: the untold story of the Apollo 11 silicon disc