Lewis, Richard S.
A few minutes past 10:00 A.M., Tuesday, April 14,1981. Columbia has begun its 37th orbit of the Earth, an orbit that will end at Edwards Air Force Base in southern California. Sighs at Houston, cheers at Edwards: Columbia was coming home. At Edwards, crowds surge up to a mile-long security rope strung along the hot, dry lake bed. Suddenly, Columbia appears over the lake like some enormous bird coming home to roost. A clamor rises as the big glider flares and settles down on the runway. Columbia rolls toastop. It is10:20: 52 A.M., PST and a new era has begun. The world's first true spaceship - a reusable craft that will travel into space again and again - has proved a success.
This lavishly illustrated volume by one of America's foremost science writers presents the whole story of America's Space Shuttle program, from early designs and planning to the four successful orbital test flights and the first five operational missions. Filled with the facts and intriguing details that have made America's space programs such an awesome and exciting venture, the book offers every reader a gripping description of one of the great chapters in human history.
Richard S. Lewis opens his journalistic account of the evolution of the first true spaceship by tracing the engineering develop-ment of the shuttle in depth, starting with its initial concept äs a fully reusable, space-adapted airplane. He then describes how budgetary and political considerations led to the current Version, a partly reusable, rocket-boosted glider.
Lewis explains how NASA officials and engineers came to realize that the develop-ment of the space shuttle would be the most complex and challenging technical problem of the space age. Several chapters teil of the frustrating technical setbacks encountered, and the triumphant breakthroughs that gradually brought Columbia to life. The reader is then treated to an inside look at the exciting days of the shuttle test flights, äs well äs operational flights by Columbia and by Challenger, the second shuttle craft.
Endlessly fascinating, The Voyages of Columbia records, äs no other book has, the dramatic birth of a new era in space exploration. It is a time which, thanks to its technological breakthroughs, promises rieh benefits for all mankind äs we approach the twenty-first Century.
Hardcover with dust jacket, large format
223 Seiten / pages
photos
good condition, with a name sticker of the previous owner
New York - 1984 - Columbia University Press
Art.Nr. 25741
