Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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).

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

At last, an illustration-rich, very well edited history of spaceflight. "Beautiful" because the pictures and computer-aided graphics are extensive, attractive, and many of the pictures are new to me. (And I have seen lots of spacecraft pictures.)

"Up to date?" It was written in 2007. That's a big deal for me, because the finest illustrated spaceflight guides that I own were all written back in the 1980's! This book contains just about everything from the German V2 of WWII to today's spacecraft, including the major vehicles and personalities from all the major Soviet and US programs, which of course culminate in today's International Space Station. (Which really does exist...you can see it with a telescope.) It briefly but nicely covers the European and Chinese efforts, and even has a page or two on the Indian space program. Finally, a pretty section on space probes, that includes (thank goodness) the Mars Exploration Rovers.

I had no idea this book existed before I saw it in the library today. I can say I own a decent collection of books on historical spaceflight. However, this book is so good, balancing detail with a high-level perspective, that I'm eager to get my own copy as soon as I can.

An overview of human, animal, and unmanned spaceflights of the world.
Awesome photos and information.

If this book doesn't whet your appetite for space flight and exploration then I don't know of another book that will. I feel like I've just walked out of spaceflight seminar every time I put this book down. I got tired of taking it to my office and lugging it home so I just bought another copy to have at work too. Would also make a great gift.

It boggles the mind that in the near fifty years of space exploration, astronauts have yet to master the ability to adjust their camera apertures to capture the silhouetted image of a single piece of orbiting space hardware (International Space Station for instance)against a brilliant star-filled universe background.

If one visits the thermodynamics class at any engineering school in the United States or examines a common textbook of that subject, they will always be informed that there are three modes of heat transfer, conduction, convection and radiation. Never is water/ice sublimation through a porous nickel plate sublimator discussed. How odd since it's the method allegedly used to explain how Apollo and ISS astronauts cooled themselves. Giles conspicuously avoids the subject like the plague. Giles, too, provides the obligatory cartoon cutaway of an astronauts suit. Readers are easily fooled with slick pictures especially if they're dedicated to being deluded.

Apollo, ISS and the Mars missions are all hoaxes. Giles should better have spent his efforts documenting those hard truths.