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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorThe Cradle of American Space Exploration
Kenny Mitchell
At the end of World War II, the U.S. government transferred Dr. Wernher von Braun and his team of scientists from Germany to America. No one could have imagined that the greatest engineering feat in human history would result. Working together, the Germans and their American counterparts became the Apollo team capable of responding to a presidential challenge issued in 1962 to take mankind to the
A Man on the Moon
Andrew Chaikin, Michael Kramer · 688 pages
For the 25th anniversary of the first moon landing, a winning and detailed account of the Apollo astronauts, a dozen of whom were the first human beings to walk on the face of the moon. The strength of the book lies in Chaikin's exhaustive research, including interviews with all 24 Apollo astronauts. Chaikin, an editor of Sky and Telescope, draws on the wealth of material from NASA's files--incl
Apollo 8
Jeffrey Kluger · 320 pages
Recounts the bold but dangerous mission to secure America's position as the first nation to reach the moon, revealing the dangers endured by its crew and the ways the mission brought renewal to a country ravaged by assassinations and war.
Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon
Alan Shepard, Deke Slayton, Jay Barbree, Howard Benedict · 396 pages
Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Rivalries that Ignited the Space Age
Matthew Brzezinski · 336 pages
The behind-the-scenes story of the fierce battles on earth that launched the superpowers into space. Khrushchev was frustrated at America's U-2 spy plane, which flew too high to be shot down. But Russia's chief rocket designer, had an answer: an artificial satellite that would orbit the earth and cross American skies at will. The launch of Sputnik on October 4, 1957, stunned the world. Sputnik set
Starman: The Truth Behind The Legend Of Yuri Gagarin
Jamie Doran, Piers Bizony · 248 pages
The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America's Race in Space
Eugene Cernan, Donald A. Davis · 356 pages
Eugene Cernan came of age as an astronaut during the most exciting and dangerous decade of space flight. His career spanned the entire Gemini and Apollo programs, from being the first person to spacewalk all the way around our world to the moment when he left man's last footprint on the Moon as commander of Apollo 17. Between those two historic events lay more adventures than an ordinary person c
Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream
Tanya Lee Stone · 139 pages
They had the right stuff. They defied the prejudices of the time. And they blazed a trail for generations of women to follow. What does it take to be an astronaut? Excellence at flying, courage, intelligence, resistance to stress, top physical shape — any checklist would include these. But when America created NASA in 1958, there was another unspoken rule: you had to be a man. Here is the tale
Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars
Nathalia Holt · 427 pages
"The riveting true story of the women who launched America into space. In the 1940s and 50s, when the newly minted Jet Propulsion Laboratory needed quick-thinking mathematicians to calculate velocities and plot trajectories, they didn’t turn to male graduates. Rather, they recruited an elite group of young women who, with only pencil, paper, and mathematical prowess, transformed rocket design,
Too Far From Home: A Story of Life and Death in Space
Chris Jones · 296 pages
Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon
Craig Nelson · 404 pages
A richly detailed and dramatic account of one of the greatest achievements of humankindAt 9:32 A.M. on July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 rocket launched in the presence of more than a million spectators who had gathered to witness a truly historic event. It carried Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins to the last frontier of human imagination: the moon.Rocket Men is the thrilling story of the
Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond
Gene Kranz · 539 pages
"Kranz was flight director for both Apollo 11, the mission in which Neil Armstrong fulfilled President Kennedy's pledge, and Apollo 13. He headed the Tiger Team that had to figure out how to bring the three Apollo 13 astronauts safely back to Earth. (In the film Apollo 13, Kranz was played by the actor Ed Harris, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance.)". "In Failure Is Not an
Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon
Catherine Thimmesh · 80 pages
The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight
Martha Ackmann · 280 pages
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; th
Mars Rover Curiosity: An Inside Account from Curiosity's Chief Engineer
Rob Manning · 232 pages
In Mars Rover Curiosity: An Inside Account from Curiosity's Chief Engineer, Rob Manning, the project's chief engineer, tells of bringing the groundbreaking spacecraft to life. Manning and his team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, tasked with designing a lander many times larger and more complex than any before, faced technical setbacks, fights over inadequate resources, and the challenges of l
Leaving Orbit: Notes from the Last Days of American Spaceflight
Margaret Lazarus Dean · 317 pages
Leaving Orbit takes the measure of what American spaceflight has achieved while reckoning with its earlier witnesses, such as Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe, and Oriana Fallaci. Along the way, Dean meets NASA workers, astronauts, and space fans, gathering possible answers to the question: What does it mean that a spacefaring nation won't be going to space anymore? An elegy to the waning days of human sp
First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong
James R. Hansen · 784 pages
On July 20, 1969, the world stood still to watch 38-year-old American astronaut Neil A. Armstrong become the first person ever to step on the surface of another heavenly body. Upon his return to Earth, Armstrong was celebrated for his monumental achievement. He was also--as NASA historian Hansen reveals in this authorized biography--misunderstood. Armstrong's accomplishments as an engineer, a test
Spaceman: An Astronaut's Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe
Mike Massimino · 336 pages
Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon
Buzz Aldrin, Ken Abraham · 331 pages
Forty years ago, Buzz Aldrin became the second human, minutes after Neil Armstrong, to set foot on a celestial body other than the Earth. The event remains one of mankind's greatest achievements and was witnessed by the largest worldwide television audience in history. In the years since, millions more have had their Earth-centric perspective unalterably changed by the iconic photograph of Aldrin
Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base
Annie Jacobsen · 550 pages
It is the most famous military installation in the world. And it doesn't exist. Located a mere seventy-five miles outside of Las Vegas in Nevada's desert, the base has never been acknowledged by the U.S. government-but Area 51 has captivated imaginations for decades. Myths and hypotheses about Area 51 have long abounded, thanks to the intense secrecy enveloping it. Some claim it is home to aliens,
Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11
Brian Floca · 56 pages
Here is the story of the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon -- a story of leaving and returning during the summer of 1969, and a story of home, seen whole, from far away by steady astronauts in their great machines.