Space Mission

A compelling look inside the Space Shuttle missions that helped lay the groundwork for the Space Age, Shuttle, Houston explores the determined personalities, technological miracles, and 11th-hour saves that have given us human spaceflight. Relaying stories of missions (and their grueling training) in vivid detail, Paul Dye, NASA's longest-serving flight director, examines the split-second decisions that the directors and astronauts were forced to make in a field where mistakes are unthinkable and errors led to the loss of national resources - and more importantly one's crew.

Chris Holt, working in his office at the Space Resources Corporation, discovers that one of the asteroids he is surveying for mining is actually not an asteroid at all but a derelict spaceship. The word gets out and soon the world's powers are competing to explore and claim for themselves the secrets that it holds. What they don't know is that across the galaxy, a war has been underway for millennia. A war between alien civilizations that have very different ideas about what should be done about emerging spacefaring civilizations like our own.

The Apollo space program is the most famous and celebrated in American history, but the first successful landing of men on the moon during Apollo 11 had complicated roots dating back over a decade, and it also involved one of NASA’s most infamous tragedies.

In August 1968 NASA made a bold decision: In just 16 weeks, the United States would launch humankind's first flight to the moon. Only the year before, three astronauts had burned to death in their spacecraft, and since then the Apollo program had suffered one setback after another. Meanwhile, the Russians were winning the space race, the Cold War was getting hotter by the month, and President Kennedy's promise to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade seemed sure to be broken.

The galaxy's most feared pirate raiders are the megalodogs. Massive, nearly indestructible, and knowing just enough magic that science cannot save defenders. The best way to deal with them? Never to let them board your ship. If you invite them aboard, knowingly or not, you're pretty much screwed. That's the situation Captain Jessica Ramsey finds herself in. With her wizard brother Eric off on a personal quest halfway across the galaxy, her resources for dealing with the giant canines are limited. But once a special forces operative, always a special forces operative.

A simple pickup and delivery. No questions asked; no looking inside the cargo. All it requires is a fast, stealthy ship and a crew who can keep their imaginations and consciences in check until the drop-off. The Mobius is up to the task, but when the crew can't control their curiosity, they're faced with a moral dilemma. Do they cut their losses? Contact the authorities? Take the money and run?

One last mission. It's a promise familiar to Captain John Duggan. Each final battle has another following it, with another after that. They come to him with the inevitability of death. His latest task seems no different to the others before it. As events progress, Duggan begins to believe - he starts to see how his life might change at the end of it and how the lives of billions in the Confederation may be saved if he succeeds. This time, his superiors plan no less than the destruction of the Helius Blackstar itself.

Genetic perfection has a price, and Sasha Ulara’s friend just paid it—abducted by the cold, calculating genetically altered humans, mankind's supposed next evolution. For Sasha, her son Vramel, and their loyal crew, retrieval isn't just a mission, it's a vow. They'll burn worlds to bring her home. But the architects see everything. When their desperate rescue attempt implodes under the enemy's chilling foresight, Sasha is dragged into a hidden underworld where she's forced to endure brutal trials designed not just to break her, but to reveal the terrifying scope of the architects' true ...

At first glance, it looks like just another auditorium in just another government building. But among the talented men (and later women) who worked in mission control, the room located on the third floor of Building 30—at what is now Johnson Space Center—would become known by many as "the Cathedral." These members of the space program were the brightest of their generations, making split-second decisions that determined the success or failure of a mission.

"The Sleeper Awakens" is a thrilling science fiction epic that takes readers on a journey from the red sands of Mars to the very edge of reality itself. When Dr. John Cartwright and his team embark on a mission to explore Mars, they never imagined they would uncover secrets that would shake the foundations of human understanding. As they delve deeper into the mysteries of the Red Planet, they discover an ancient alien civilization with technology beyond their wildest dreams. But their groundbreaking find quickly turns into a fight for survival as they awaken cosmic entities known as the ...

When Nicole Stott first saw Earth from space, she realized how interconnected we are and knew she had to help protect our planetary home. In Back to Earth, Stott imparts essential lessons in problem-solving, survival, and crisis response that each of us can practice to make change. She knows we can overcome differences to address global issues, because she saw this every day on the International Space Station. Stott shares stories from her spaceflight and insights from scientists, activists, and changemakers working to solve our greatest environmental challenges.

On July 14, 2015, something amazing happened. More than three billion miles from Earth, a small NASA spacecraft called New Horizons screamed past Pluto at more than 32,000 miles per hour, focusing its instruments on the long-mysterious icy worlds of the Pluto system, and then, just as quickly, continued on its journey out into the beyond.

Earth is rising in the House of Voltar.... And there’ll be hell to pay! That’s right. The invasion is on...and it’s coming soon to a galaxy near you. The action couldn’t be hotter, and the plot couldn’t be more diabolical. Earth is coming to Voltar - and the Voltarians won’t know what hit them. Murder, blackmail, drugs, psychoanalysis, PR firms, sex-crazed teenyboppers, riots in the streets, women in chains. These are the powerful secret weapons of war.

Legendary "space statesman" Buzz Aldrin speaks out as a vital advocate for the continuing quest to push the boundaries of the universe as we know it. As a pioneering astronaut who set foot on the moon during mankind’s first landing with Apollo 11 - and an aerospace engineer who designed an orbital rendezvous technique critical to future planetary landings - Aldrin has a vision, and in Mission to Mars he plots out the path he proposes, one that will take humans to Mars by 2035.

Carl Ramsey is a dead man. Or he will be soon. Captured by the Eyndar Empire, his old Third War service record becomes a list of charges. Actions that earned him commendations and acclaim from his own side resulted in thousands of deaths to his eyndar foes, and they plan to make a public celebration out of his executions. Plural. Thanks to medical science, they have Six Deaths lined up. With a calendar of events available via the omni, the Arete crew has a very literal deadline to work with formulating a rescue plan.

A Never-Before-Told Story of Ambition, Innovation, and the Limits of Human Exploration What if humanity’s greatest leap into the cosmos was not to the Moon—but to Venus? In Beyond the Lunar Frontier, Gary Covella, Ph.D., unveils a gripping, untold narrative of the bold vision that could have reshaped space exploration forever. This is the story of a manned mission to Venus, a dream born in the heat of the Cold War, fueled by the audacious spirit of the Apollo era, and ultimately abandoned in the face of insurmountable challenges. The Vision That Almost Was In the 1960s, as NASA ...

They planned for Mars. They didn’t plan for war. Liam Finnegan and Ava Beckett were scheduled to depart for Mars in twenty-four hours—alongside a full crew. But when the ship locks down and launches early, they find themselves trapped aboard a Mars-bound vessel, alone, with no way to turn back. Survival takes priority. So does unraveling the truth. Who launched them early? Was it a mistake—or sabotage? The answers lie on the red planet. But so does something far more dangerous. A covert force known as Red Horizon has infiltrated the Mars outpost, intent on seizing control—not just ...

Desperate for allies, captain Jessie Ramsey enters negotiations with an independent border colony. The planet has food and basic essentials aplenty; the Arete can offer protection in return. However, talks take a turn for the worse when half the ship's delegation is kidnapped—and the other half doesn't notice. Who leaked their itinerary to the kidnappers? What will become of the negotiations? Who is even qualified to take over command when all the top officers are either captured or actively involved in the rescue?

The X-wing fighter pilots have earned their reputation as the Rebel Alliance's ultimate strike force by overwhelming enemies with their rapid-fire assaults. But now they are about to embark on a diplomatic mission that will prove to be even more hazardous than all-out combat.

Captain Jessie Ramsey has brought the starship Arete to the hostile Eyndar Empire. She and her crew have traded the complexities of the Earth/Mars wars for the open hostility of a species that will shoot them on sight. Their anti-piracy mission has evolved. Rather than simply clearing the star lanes for peaceful merchants and civilian transports, they're going after an illicit trade in sentient laborers. It's all going fine until one of the traffickers they capture reveals the location of a black market space station that makes their own operation look like small potatoes.