The Story of Manned Space Stations: An Introduction (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration) [Paperback]

Philip Baker (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0387307753 | ISBN-13: 978-0387307756 | Publication Date: February 6, 2010 | Edition: 1

This book charts the history of manned space stations in a logical, chronological order. It tells the story of the two major space powers starting out on their very separate programs, but slowly coming together. It describes rarely mentioned development programs, most of which never flew, including the US Manned Orbiting Laboratory, the Soviet Almaz station, and the Soviet Polyus battlestation. The Mir space station was one of the greatest human achievements in modern history, and a thorough telling of its story is essential to this book. This book is the first of its kind to tell the whole story of the manned space stations from the USA and Russia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 188 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (February 6, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0387307753
• ISBN-13: 978-0387307756
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #333,466 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent overview of Russian and American space stations, September 23, 2007

By 

N. Gurnagul (Somewhere in Quebec) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Story of Manned Space Stations: An Introduction (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration) (Paperback)

This is an excellent book that gives a clear, concise and well written overview of space stations from the American, Soviet and Russian programs. I was very impressed with the large number of illustrations and photographs most of which I had never seen before (there are about 80 figures). The color plates of illustrations showing the various stages of completion of the International Space Station were also impressive. Although the book is only about 170 pages long I believe it is the perfect length to give the reader a nice overall summary of all the space station launches. Excellent value for the low cost of the book, highly recommended !

4.0 out of 5 stars A Useful but Once-Over-Lightly Overview of the History of Space Stations, December 28, 2008

By 

Roger D. Launius "Historian" (Washington, D.C., United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Story of Manned Space Stations: An Introduction (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration) (Paperback)

While the first space station in American culture was described in an 1869 work of fiction in the "Atlantic Monthly," in the twentieth century the idea proliferated through all cultures as the sine qua non enabling technology for space exploration. In the latter part of the 1960s many in the leadership both of NASA and the Soviet space program realized that creating a permanent infrastructure in space held the most hope in eventually developing the capability to leave Earth permanently.

In part because of a persistent vision of human destiny to explore the Solar System and the central role of a space station in facilitating this goal, studies of space station configurations had been an important part of spaceflight planning in the 1950s and 1960s. Scientists and engineers pressed for these studies because a space station met program needs for an orbital laboratory, observatory, industrial plant, launching platform, and dry-dock. For the U.S., the station was forced to the bottom of the priority heap in 1961 with the Kennedy decision to land an American on the Moon by the end of the decade. With that mandate, there was no time to develop a space station in spite of the fact that virtually everyone in NASA recognized its use for exploration beyond Earth orbit.

But the U.S. and the Soviet Union continued to pursue it. The Soviets built the Almaz and Salyut stations and the Americans flew the Skylab orbital workshop in 1973-1974. Eventually the Soviets went on to build Mir and to join the International Space Station (ISS) program in the 1990s, a program that had been started through U.S. leadership in 1984. Its first elements were launch in 1998 and the first crew went aboard in 2000.

Unfortunately, even as ISS became a reality, on February 1, 2003, its role was made tenuous by the loss of the Columbia space shuttle and the grounding of the fleet necessary to support its construction. On January 14, 2004, moreover, President George W. Bush announced a reorientation of the U.S. program to emphasize a return to the Moon. In that context, he advocated the retirement of the Space Shuttle by 2010 and the ending of U.S. involvement in ISS before 2020. Suddenly, the space station had become irrelevant to American efforts in space.

The history of space stations and their development over time, as well as what it portends for the future of space exploration, is the subject of this book. Philip Baker has done a reasonable job assembling from other sources a general introduction to this subject. If one knows nothing about space stations, this is a useful book to help understand the basics. It is not the place to go for in-depth knowledge, nor is it even the best general introduction available. For that, look to other works, especially those mentioned in the listmania recommendations that I made entitled, "Essential Reading on the History of Space Stations." This is linked at: [...]

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good overview, February 17, 2008

By 

space1966 (Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Story of Manned Space Stations: An Introduction (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration) (Paperback)

The book provides a very good overview of Man's successes and failures at performing long-duration space flights. The following programs are covered in the book: Salyut, Mir, Skylab, Shuttle-Spacelab, Shuttle-Mir and finally the International Space Station (ISS). Future plans conclude the book with a look at the Chinese space program. It is a very enjoyable read throughout, readily accessible to the non-specialists and provides a excellent starting point for those who would like to go deeper into the programs described in this book, with existing litterature and forthcoming ones (Salyut and Skylab). Color plates showing the evolution of the construction of the ISS is a nice addition.
The only criticism I could make about this book is the lack of proper description of the photos. Most of them represent astronauts/cosmonauts but their names only appear in the text. The photo caption only provide the mission's name (eg. Soyuz T15 crew) so it's hard to tell who's who in the pictures, with the notable exception of the two Chinese space flights.