Space History

Spanning four decades of dramatic advances in astronomy and planetary science, this book tells the story of eleven iconic exploratory missions and how they have fundamentally transformed our scientific and cultural perspectives on the universe and our place in it

A sweeping account of the century of experimentation that confirmed Einstein's general theory of relativity, bringing to life the science and scientists at the origins of relativity, the development of radio telescopes, the discovery of black holes and quasars, and the still unresolved place of gravity in quantum theory.

Franz Cumnot investigated various ancient sources of astrology and astronomy, including the Mesopotamian and the Mediterranean. The book discusses these early origins, supplemented by the author’s theories. From Sumeria, the cradle of astrology and astronomy, the knowledge spread to Greece and Rome where it became entwined with paganism.

In 2008, Elon Musk's SpaceX became the first private company to build a low-cost rocket that could reach orbit. Suddenly Silicon Valley, not NASA, was the epicentre of the new Space Age. Start-ups and investors began to realise that the heavens - ungoverned and unregulated - were open for business. When the Heavens Went on Sale tells the remarkable, unfolding story of this frenzied race to control access to outer space. Ashlee Vance follows four pioneering companies - Astra, Firefly, Planet Labs and Rocket Lab - as they attempt to launch thousands of low-cost rockets and satellites into orbit.

Pro tip: When a bunch of alien cats from outer space start blowing up cities without warning, prior plans may have to be altered. Be prepared to improvise. Yosi Weismann had a simple gig: Babysit a grossly irresponsible young man, who just happened to be a prince. Let His Excellency sow his wild oats. Don’t let him kill himself, or anyone else, in the process. Piece of cake for a man of his skills. A glorified vacation. That's how things were supposed to go, at any rate. Now Yosi is marooned on a foreign world, surrounded by people whom he doesn’t understand, hunted by enemies who ...

Mitochondrial Eve and Henrietta Lacks HeLa Mothers of Humanity, Earth and Space: Tracing Humanity's Past-and Future-Through the Female Line By Kaiim Daids What if the journey to Mars was written in the DNA of two Black women-one from the dawn of time, the other from a segregated hospital bed in 1951? From ancient migrations to interplanetary missions, this powerful, poetic exploration links Mitochondrial Eve and Henrietta Lacks as bookends of the human story. Science, ethics, race, and future collide in this mind-expanding, heart-awakening narrative. Discover how HeLa cells became our ...

It all started with a virus that spread through the Earth, it was an uncontrollable pandemic. A slightly more virulent flu was called. Governments closed borders, not too many people were infected and died, the world economy stopped for a long time... That was not the biggest problem.

The Other Kate's (TOK) African American short stories: three from the plantation and one from the space station The Right Reverend Doctor 44's Floaters Legend Uncle Texas Pete's Missing Gold Legend The Wailer and the Sea Breeze Dancer Mystery Needs of MIT Mars Institute of Technology Love Experimenters

Today's mission: Challenge your knowledge of planets, comets, stars, and more with this exciting quiz. The three-book series is now all in one! If you're looking for a fun, engaging way to challenge your knowledge of outer space, then you need this fact-filled trivia book! You can quiz friends and family during a galactic trivia night. If a question stumps you, we include the answer and multiple facts with every quiz so you can also brush up on your knowledge.

Of all the goals the Bolshevik Revolution aimed to bring about, perhaps nowhere were Russian promises delivered on more than in the success of the Soviet Space program of the 1950s and 1960s. As a result of Russian innovation and technology, but also due to incredible drive to modernize and compete with the United States for world power, Russia was finally and triumphantly modernized in the eyes of her own people and the world.

Rockets and Revolution offers a multifaceted study of the race toward space in the first half of the twentieth century, examining how the Russian, European, and American pioneers competed against one another in the early years to acquire the fundamentals of rocket science, engineer simple rockets, and ultimately prepare the path for human spaceflight.

When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the lunar surface in July of 1969, they wore spacesuits made by Playtex: 21 layers of fabric, each with a distinct yet interrelated function, custom-sewn for them by seamstresses whose usual work was fashioning bras and girdles. This book is the story of that spacesuit. It is a story of the triumph over the military-industrial complex by the International Latex Corporation, best known by its consumer brand of "Playtex" - a victory of elegant softness over engineered hardness, of adaptation over cybernetics.

In 1957 the Soviet Union sent Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, into space. America took up the challenge to explore the next frontier. A dozen years, and 25 billion dollars later, the mission of Apollo 11 would yield man's finest hour. For that was the first time man's foot left prints on another heavenly body. And that was only the beginning. Apollo 11 is the incredible story of how a nation forged the technology during the turbulent 1960s to slip humanity from the bonds of its native planet. This inside look remembers those who made the great enterprise succeed.

Launius places American and Soviet programs on equal footing - following American aerospace engineers Wernher von Braun and Robert Gilruth, their Soviet counterparts Sergei Korolev and Valentin Glushko, and astronaut Buzz Aldrin and cosmonaut Alexei Leonov - to highlight key actions that led to various successes, failures, and ultimately the American Moon landing.

The summer of 1969 saw astronauts land on the moon for the first time and hippie hordes descend on Woodstock for a legendary music festival. For Neil M. Maher, the conjunction of these two era-defining events is not entirely coincidental. With its lavishly funded mandate to send a man to the moon, Apollo became a litmus test in the 1960s culture wars.

The Empire State is the other New York. It’s a parallel-universe, Prohibition-era world of mooks and shamuses that is the twisted magic mirror to our bustling Big Apple. It’s a city where sinister characters lurk around every corner while the great superheroes who once kept the streets safe have fallen into deadly rivalries and feuds. Not that its colourful residents know anything about the real New York...until detective Rad Bradley makes a discovery that will change the lives of all its inhabitants.

The Cold War is usually thought of in terms of fear, potential nuclear war, and espionage. While these were elements of the years between the end of World War II and the 1990s, the competition between the US and the USSR had some real benefits. Perhaps, the best and most impressive accomplishments during this time resulted from the Space Race.

Galileo Unbound traces the journey that brought us from Galileo's law of free fall to today's geneticists measuring evolutionary drift, entangled quantum particles moving among many worlds, and our lives as trajectories traversing a health space with thousands of dimensions. Remarkably, common themes persist that predict the evolution of species as readily as the orbits of planets or the collapse of stars into black holes.

The Moon has always been more than a celestial body—it’s a symbol of human curiosity, imagination, and the unyielding desire to explore. In "The Moon: Humanity's Next Frontier," this timeless companion of Earth takes center stage in a fascinating journey that blends history, science, and the bold visions of the future. Discover the Moon’s dramatic origin story, forged in a fiery collision that forever linked its fate to our planet. Explore how its influence shaped Earth's environment, stabilized its seasons, and played a pivotal role in the emergence of life. Travel through history to...

During the summer of 1969 - the summer Americans first walked on the moon - musician and poet Patti Smith recalled strolling down the Coney Island Boardwalk to a refreshment stand, where "pictures of Jesus, President Kennedy, and the astronauts were taped to the wall behind the register." Such was the zeitgeist in the year of the moon. Yet this holy trinity of 1960s America would quickly fall apart.