posted 01-28-2013 09:01 AM               

No country has made a greater contribution to the exploration of space than the United States, and this critically acclaimed book charts the complete history of the country’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from its earliest days to the present. Award-winning historian Michael H. Gorn covers every US space mission ever undertaken, and in this fully revised edition, with a new foreword by Buzz Aldrin, brings the story up to date at a time when NASA finds itself experiencing dramatic change. Gorn relates the termination of the Shuttle programme, President Obama’s initiative to launch a new heavy lift rocket, and the development of the Mars Science Laboratory, which successfully landed the rover Curiosity on the surface of the planet in 2012. He also reveals how the personalities involved, including astronauts, pilots, scientists, engineers and America’s presidents, have shaped the course of space exploration as much as technological advances. Authoritative yet accessible, and packed with 500 images, this is the only book on NASA you’ll ever need.

Michael H. Gorn was formerly Chief Historian at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. He is the author of numerous books about aeronautics and spaceflight, including SuperStructures in Space: From Satellites to Space Stations – A Guide to What’s Out There (Merrell, 2008).

• Hardcover: 304 pages
  
• Publisher: Merrell Publishers; Revised Edition edition (October 15, 2013)
  
• ISBN-10: 1858946115
  
• ISBN-13: 978-1858946115