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Examining popular images that have helped motivate the most ambitious civil space program in the world, Howard E. McCurdy argues that the spacefaring dream tapped into several of America's most deeply rooted cultural ideals: the limitless frontier, the heroic explorer, the romance of aviation, and progress through technology. He also shows how space advocates, playing on the public's Cold War fears, convinced politicians that control of space meant control of the earth. Their campaign helps to explain why President Kennedy approved the expensive Project Apollo, leading to the space program's most visible success, the 1969 moon landing. Forty years after the launch of the first orbiting satellites, U.S. achievements in space have fallen far short of the hopeful visions encouraged by Chesley Bonestell's paintings in Collier's magazine and television shows such as Star Trek. In Space and the American Imagination, McCurdy contends that the gap between expectations and reality led to waning public support for the space program and argues that such gaps typically arise when public policy debates are obliged to entertain as well as inform.

Examines the politics behind the funding of NASA.

It was a time of bold new technology, historic moments, and international jousting on the final frontier. But it was also a time of human drama, of moments less public but no less dramatic in the lives of those who made the golden age of space flight happen. These are the moments and the lives that Into That Silent Sea captures, a book that tells the intimate stories of the men and women, American and Russian, who made the space race their own and gave the era its compelling character. These pages chronicle a varied and riveting cavalcade of human stories, including a look at Yuri Gagarin’s harrowing childhood in war-ravaged Russia and Alan Shepard's firm purchase on the American dream. It also examines the controversial career of cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, and the remarkable struggle and ultimate disappointment of her American counterparts. It tries to uncover the truth behind the allegations that shadowed Gus Grissom and Scott Carpenter and then allows the reader to share the heart-stopping suspense of Alexei Leonov’s near-fatal first space walk. Through dozens of interviews and access to Russian and American official documents and family records, the authors bring to life the experiences that shaped the lives of the first astronauts and cosmonauts and forever changed their world and ours.
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In the Shadow of the Moon tells the story of the most exciting and challenging years in spaceflight, with two superpowers engaged in a titanic struggle to land one of their own people on the moon. While describing awe-inspiring technical achievements, the authors go beyond the missions and the competition of the space race to focus on the people who made it all possible. Their book explores the inspirations, ambitions, personalities, and experiences of the select few whose driving ambition was to fly to the moon. Drawing on interviews with astronauts, cosmonauts, their families, technicians, and scientists, as well as rarely seen Soviet and American government documents, the authors craft a remarkable story of the golden age of spaceflight as both an intimate human experience and a rollicking global adventure. From the Gemini flights to the Soyuz space program to the earliest Apollo missions, including the legendary first moon landing, their book draws a richly detailed picture of the space race as an endeavor equally endowed with personal meaning and political significance.

In 1961, just as NASA launched its first man into space, a group of women underwent secret testing in the hopes of becoming America's first female astronauts. They passed the same battery of tests at the legendary Lovelace Foundation as did the Mercury 7 astronauts, but they were summarily dismissed by the boys' club at NASA and on Capitol Hill. The USSR sent its first woman into space in 1963; the United States did not follow suit for another twenty years. For the first time, Martha Ackmann tells the story of the dramatic events surrounding these thirteen remarkable women, all crackerjack pilots and patriots who sometimes sacrificed jobs and marriages for a chance to participate in America's space race against the Soviet Union.

In Eisenhower's Sputnik Moment, Yanek Mieczkowski examines the early history of America's space program, reassessing Eisenhower's leadership. He details how Eisenhower approved breakthrough satellites, supported a new civilian space agency, signed a landmark science education law, and fostered improved relations with scientists. These feats made Eisenhower's post-Sputnik years not the flop that critics alleged but a time of remarkable progress, even as he endured the setbacks of recession, medical illness, and a humiliating first U.S. attempt to launch a satellite. Eisenhower's principled stands enabled him to resist intense pressure to boost federal spending, and he instead pursued his priorities-a balanced budget, prosperous economy, and sturdy national defense. Yet Sputnik also altered the world's power dynamics, sweeping Eisenhower in directions that were new, even alien, to him, and he misjudged the importance of space in the Cold War's "prestige race." By contrast, Kennedy capitalized on the issue in the 1960 election, and after taking office he urged a manned mission to the moon, leaving Eisenhower to grumble over the young president's aggressive approach. Offering a fast-paced account of this Cold War episode, Mieczkowski demonstrates that Eisenhower built an impressive record in space and on earth, all the while offering warnings about America's stature and strengths that still hold true today.

As the United States and the Soviet Union went from exploring space to living in it, a space station was conceived as the logical successor to the Apollo moon program. But between conception and execution there was the vastness of space itself, to say nothing of monumental technological challenges. Homesteading Space, by two of Skylab’s own astronauts and a NASA journalist, tells the dramatic story of America’s first space station from beginning to fiery end. nbsp; Homesteading Space is much more than a story of technological and scientific success; it is also an absorbing, sometimes humorous, often inspiring account of the determined, hardworking individuals who shepherded the program through a near-disastrous launch, a heroic rescue, and an exhausting study of Comet Kohoutek, as well as the lab's ultimate descent into the Indian Ocean. Featuring the unpublished in-flight diary of astronaut Alan Bean, the book is replete with the personal recollections and experiences of the Skylab crew and those who worked with them in training, during the mission, and in bringing them safely home.

In this real life spy saga, James E. David reveals the extensive and largely hidden interactions between NASA and U.S. defense and intelligence departments.

In 1978, the first group of space shuttle astronauts was introduced to the world -- twenty-nine men and six women who would carry NASA through the most tumultuous years of the space shuttle program. Among them was USAF Colonel Mike Mullane, who, in his memoir Riding Rockets, strips the heroic veneer from the astronaut corps and paints them as they are -- human. Mullane's tales of arrested development among military flyboys working with feminist pioneers and post-doc scientists are sometimes bawdy, often comical, and always entertaining. He vividly portrays every aspect of the astronaut experience, from telling a female technician which urine-collection condom size is a fit to hearing "Taps" played over a friend's grave. He is also brutally honest in his criticism of a NASA leadership whose bungling would precipitate the Challenger disaster -- killing four members of his group. A hilarious, heartfelt story of life in all its fateful uncertainty, Riding Rockets will resonate long after the call of "Wheel stop."

"Truth, Lies, and O-Rings is the first look at the Challenger tragedy and its aftermath from someone who was on the inside, recognized the potential disaster, and tried to prevent it. It also addresses the early warnings of very severe debris issues from the first two post-Challenger flights, which ultimately resulted in the loss of Columbia some fifteen years later."

Pat Duggins chronicles the milestones, the setbacks, the breakthroughs, and the breakdowns of the Space Shuttle program.

The troubles between the Science Institute and the Goddard Space Flight Center, which worked on the Hubble. More than 100 photos.

In the decades since the mid-1970s, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has led the quest to explore the farthest reaches of the solar system. JPL spacecraft, including Voyager, Magellan, Galileo, and the Mars rovers, have brought the planets into close view. JPL satellites and instruments also shed new light on the structure and dynamics of earth itself, while their orbiting observatories opened new vistas on the cosmos. This comprehensive book recounts the extraordinary story of the lab's accomplishments, failures, and evolution from 1976 to the present day. This history of JPL encompasses far more than the story of the events and individuals that have shaped the institution. It also engages wider questions about relations between civilian and military space programmes, the place of science and technology in American politics, and the impact of the work at JPL on the way we imagine the place of humankind in the universe.

Space has become increasingly crowded since the end of the Cold War, with new countries, companies, and even private citizens operating satellites and becoming spacefarers. This book offers general readers a valuable primer on space policy from an international perspective. It examines the competing themes of space competition and cooperation while providing readers with an understanding of the basics of space technology, diplomacy, commerce, science, and military applications.

Reviews the history of Mars exploration, looks at what is being done in the twenty-first century to fulfill the dream of sending humans to Mars, and looks at the challenges astronauts would face on a journey to the red planet, such as growing their own food, finding water, and solving their own problems and emergencies.

Born of a Cold War fear, NASA moves boldly from disastrous rocket tests to the glorious conclusion of the Gemini Program. Examining the massive challenges to get the first man in space, this episode show how, despite many setbacks and six epic flights later the astronauts proved the most important component of any NASA mission would be a human being. (approx. 52 minutes)

Landing a human being on another celestial body was the first step to living beyond our planet. The breathless pace and daring of the Apollo program sees NASA’s team master previously unimagined tasks and machines toward the most incredible climax in the history of human endeavor. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon and return safely to Earth, the whole planet throws them a party. (approx. 53 minutes)

After the success of landing a man on the Moon, meeting JFK's challenge, NASA confronted the near disaster of Apollo 13, which was avoided by human intelligence and ingenuity. After four more successful lunar landings, NASA re-engineered the program. The STS Shuttle was used in the construction of the International Space Station, but disaster struck when Challenger exploded, killing the crew, including teacher Christa McAuliffe. A redesigned shuttle, Columbia, began new missions and placed the Hubble Telescope in orbit. After 22 years of service, Columbia, STS-107, disintegrated during re-entry, killing seven crew members. Despite this, NASA recovered with STS-114, Discovery, for a return to flight. (approx. 53 minutes)

This A&E Special offers insights into the in-flight failure of space shuttle Challenger, which disintegrated shortly after liftoff, killing all onboard. Distributed by A&E Television Networks. (48 minutes)

Taking knowledge from past missions, this episode looks beyond NASA’s fleeting visits to space. After the Moon, mankind must seek to explore deep space and learn to live beyond the Earth. This stage in space exploration heralds a replacement of rivalry with partnership; the International Space Station sees many other space agencies join the mission, with Japanese, Canadian and European astronauts working to its completion in 2010. (52 minutes)

Antonio Neves reports on NASA's plans to shift space exploration from the government to a public/private partnership. (6 minutes)