Full Description
Here is a history of the development of military missiles and space travel from World War II to the American visits to the Moon in 1969-1972. It stresses the relationship between the early stages of space exploration and the arms race, and that a dual path led to space flight. One was the development of unmanned long-range war rockets, the other, less often noted, was the rocket-powered research plane. The first path led through the intercontinental ballistic missile to the first artificial satellites and space capsule; the latter, more uniquely American, through the X-series and Skyrocket rocket planes to the X-15, and ultimately to the Space Shuttle. The early part of the book focuses on the Soviet-American race to develop the ICBM in the 1950s, and the first satellites, with particular attention paid to the events and reactions that followed the flight of Sputnik I in 1957 and the subsequent missile gap era.
Contents
Preface Prelude and Background to the Development of Rocketry and Space Travel The Immediate Postwar Era: Abortive Progress and Hiatus 1945-1950 The Race for the ICBM Space Exploration and Satellites in the 1950s Sputnik and its Consequences, 1957-1958 The "Missile Gap" and After The Space Race, 1958-1960 Humans in Orbit and Interplanetary Probes, 1961-1966 The Other Road--Wings toward Space The Road Not Taken--Nuclear Propulsion To the Moon Bibliography Index
