On this page: Space: 50 Years of the Space Age Spaceflight: The Complete Story from Sputnik to Shuttle - and Beyond Full Moon Fallen Astronauts: Heroes Who Died Reaching for the Moon What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character Centauri Dreams: Imagining and Planning Interstellar Exploration How to Build Sci-Fi Model Spacecraft Interstellar Travel and Multi-Generational Space Ships (Apogee Books Space Series) We Have Capture: Tom Stafford and the Space Race Destination Moon Space: 50 Years of the Space Age Piers Bizony Hardcover Collins 02 October, 2006 Amazon price*: £30.00 (list price £30.00) Used price*: £5.53 More Info & Buy Online Review: Space: 50 Years of the Space Age (5/5) Big book. Big subject. Beautifully illustrated on quality paper, and backed up by a highly informative text. Space is a celebration of the first 50 years of space exploration, and reading the book is the next best thing to being there. As well, Space ponders the future and speculates what could be possible in this limitless new frontier. The politics of the time was intriguing and continue to be to this day. But now it is not just the USA and Russia. Many countries have now entered the space arena and as well as commercial companies that are already offering private citizens access to space for the ride of their life. It wasn't until the Russians launched Sputnik in 1957 that official skepticism finally ceased. It was now the beginning of the Space Age. This fabulous book reports on the achievements challenges as well as the failures of space exploration which remind us that the future does not belong to the fainthearted. Only the brave can claim it. Space outlines the exciting opportunities that await us. It could well be that the next 50 years could be even more exciting than the last. Without a doubt, Space is a five star read. Spaceflight: The Complete Story from Sputnik to Shuttle - and Beyond Buzz Aldrin, Giles Sparrow Hardcover Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd 02 August, 2007 Amazon price*: £17.50 (list price £25.00) Used price*: £11.49 More Info & Buy Online Review: Another beauty (5/5) Well, just when I was tiring of a decent spaceflight book, this one comes along. The book is packed with detail, photos and diagrams: all very interesting and very readable. The book traces the history of spaceflight and dedicates sections on all the key parts (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Shuttle etc). Needless to say, one of the best Xmas presents I was given. Buy it and enjoy (no I don't work for DK). Full Moon Michael Light Hardcover Jonathan Cape 24 October, 2002 Amazon price*: £8.57 (list price £12.99) Used price*: £4.99 More Info & Buy Online The Apollo missions, completed between 1967 and 1972, were achieved due to the magnificent co-operative effort of 400,000 men and women, and resulted in the miraculous feat of no deaths, six lunar landings, and over 32,000 photographs. To mark the 30th anniversary of the first landing, the Hayward Gallery in London held an exhibition in Summer 1999 of a selection of those photographs under the title "Full Moon". Indulge yourself in the catalogue of the show and it will take your breath away. Artist and photographer Michael Light has drawn on Nasa's huge archive to put together an archetypal lunar journey in images, from take-off to landing. It is awesome. To communicate the necessary density required a special black ink --"Luna Nero" was developed solely for the printing of this book, and the latest digital resources were used to process miles of black-and-white negatives and colour transparencies to a unique razor-sharp clarity. With five gatefold montage panoramas included, this is landscape photography at its best. Astronauts take their first steps in space, their cables attaching them to their mother craft like giant umbilical cords. The moody surface of the moon changes with every picture, resembling fried egg-white, Emmental cheese, and bubbling broth, magnificent desolation where humankind is the alien. Everything is shadow, scale, texture, trails. Ultimately space travel, like any journeying, is about where you come from rather than where you are going, and the pictures of the Earth taken from space are about as life-affirming as anything you will see. The final image, taken from a capsule that has landed in the Pacific Ocean, ironically shows a seascape redolent of the moon, but appropriately coloured Earth-defining blue. Andrew Chaikin, author of the definitive study of the Apollo missions A Man in the Moon, has written a well-observed essay to complement Light's sequence, but there is no doubting the stars of the show, so to speak. At a time when we've bewilderingly lost a sense of space, this luxurious and spiritual book brilliantly captures something of it anew. --David Vincent Review: Awe-inspiring (5/5) These beautiful photographs simply take your breath away. You almost feel as if you're there. A fitting testament to the Apollo program and all the people who made it happen. Review: Just like being there (5/5) For someone who was too young to appreciate the Apollo moon landings at the time, this book gives me the feeling I was actually there, with the astronauts! The exceptionally high quality of the images, most of which need no caption makes this almost without exception one of the astronomical books of the decade, if not the century! Its a pity that this book shows us what we lost when we left the moon in 1972, and what awaits us when we return. Review: If ever a book deserved a soundtrack... (5/5) An awesome book, both aesthetically and technically. Turning the pages, I found myself almost expecting to hear the soundtrack to go along with the images. The deafening roar of Saturn Five's engines, the gentle clarinet as the Appolo ventures into the shoals of space, the stabbing chord as the stark desolation of the moon comes into view. A fitting tribute to Man's greatest achievement. Fallen Astronauts: Heroes Who Died Reaching for the Moon Eugene A. Cernan, Colin Burgess, Kate Doolan, Bert Vis Paperback University of Nebraska Press 30 November, 2003 Amazon price*: £13.99 (list price £13.99) Used price*: £8.00 More Info & Buy Online Review: Excellent. (5/5) This is a little-known area of spaceflight - about guys usually remembered for how they died. This book creates a much needed balance by explaining how they lived. And what wonderful characters they were. I wish I had met them. I feel like I miss them, and I never even knew them. Powerful stuff. Recommended. Review: Poignant, Moving, Absorbingly Informative. (5/5) Poignant, moving, and absorbingly informative, "Fallen Astronauts" is an extraordinary, lasting tribute to America's astronauts and the Soviet Union's cosmonauts who reached for the moon, but tragically lost their lives while pursuing their goal. Equally important, authors Colin Burgess, Kate Doolan, and Bert Vis tell of the wrenching but inspiring effects of the fallen heroes losses on the lives of loved ones left behind, stories seldom told in accounts of the brave and courageous. While readers receive a capsule history of the early, pioneering days in the race to the moon, the book's mini-biographies tell us of the backgrounds, personalities, young lives, and good humor of those who risked so much and dared so magnificently. The depth and breadth of research and writing are evident, making clear to readers that each astronaut contributed greatly to advancing the mission, though their lives were grievously brief. Recollections of them by their wives and children, and the remarkable tributes on the surface of the moon by fellow astronauts, are touching, and bring warmth and balance to stories otherwise forever lost in the sparkling magic of space travel and discovery. "Fallen Astronauts" is a joy to read and adds a memorably eloquent dimension to the spectacular triumphs in space exploration. Review: Long overdue (5/5) As an astronaut from 1963 to 1971, I was at NASA during the incredible years when mankind went from making short flights in Earth orbit to standing on the surface of the moon. Unfortunately, in those years, we also lost a good number of my astronaut colleagues along the way. This personally affected me most when, as part of the backup crew for Apollo 1, we had to step into their shoes and fly the first manned Apollo flight after their untimely and tragic deaths. The death of Gus Grissom's crew helped make it possible to land a man on the moon on schedule - indeed, it may have saved America's space program - so we cannot consider their deaths to have been in vain. It certainly made our Apollo 7 mission a success. It also reminded the American public that people could and would die in our efforts to explore the heavens. If you have been a jet fighter pilot for any length of time, you have seen your friends get killed - often - and you build up a certain immunity. I flew with such men and knew them well - men frozen in time now like shadows in old group photos. After several flights with Ted Freeman, I was convinced he was one of our better pilots. C.C. Williams, a big, strapping six-footer who wouldn't let you dislike him, had flying skills that couldn't be faulted. What impressed me most about Charlie Bassett was his discipline, dedication, and fine mechanical skills. I once played a great practical joke on Ed Givens. Elliot See was another friend of mine. My children were playmates with their children, and they noticed that some of Daddy's friends sometimes didn't come home from work. This book brings these old colleagues and friends of mine back to life, and it is wonderful to see them finally get the attention they deserve in print. I highly recommend this book for a long overdue insight into my old friends and colleagues, who paid the ultimate price for us all. What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character Richard P. Feynman, Ralph Leighton Hardcover HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 23 February, 1989 Used price*: £1.99 More Info & Buy Online Centauri Dreams: Imagining and Planning Interstellar Exploration Paul Gilster Hardcover Springer-Verlag New York Inc. June, 2004 Amazon price*: £12.68 (list price £12.30) Used price*: £8.75 More Info & Buy Online How to Build Sci-Fi Model Spacecraft Richard Marmo Paperback Specialty Press 14 July, 2004 Amazon price*: £14.99 (list price £14.99) Used price*: £8.83 More Info & Buy Online Interstellar Travel and Multi-Generational Space Ships (Apogee Books Space Series) Y. Kondo, Frederick C. Bruhweiler, John Moore, Charles Sheffield Hardcover Collector's Guide Publishing 01 June, 2003 Amazon price*: £13.27 (list price £18.95) Used price*: £8.88 More Info & Buy Online We Have Capture: Tom Stafford and the Space Race Tom Stafford, Michael Cassutt Paperback Smithsonian Books March, 2004 Amazon price*: £8.27 (list price £8.27) Used price*: £2.38 More Info & Buy Online Review: I liked this book. (5/5) Goodness knows how Mike Cassutt managed to make such a great book out of a tough subject. Stafford is notoriously tight-lipped about his personal life, considered a little vain and occasionally arrogant. But here is a really good read about some amazing moments in history. Bravo Cassutt!!!! Review: It Sure Captured My Imagination (5/5) Ask any American to name ten pioneering U.S. astronauts and it's quite unlikely they would include the name of Tom Stafford. Yet here is a man who was chosen in NASA's second group of astronauts, who flew two incredible Gemini missions, operated a lunar module to within a few miles of the lunar surface, and became a crew member on the historic ASTP mission, in which Soviet and American spacefarers shook hands in space. And that is just his spaceflight career. There are many layers to General Tom Stafford, and this book explores them all. I will also add that this was a greatly-anticipated book in the space community; co-author Michael Cassutt had earlier hunkered down with Deke Slayton and written a truly superb book about the man, his life and career. Undoubtedly a winner, and an intriguing book about a man whose influence is still being felt at NASA and the upper echelon of spaceflight administration; so highly thought of that he was part of the Columbia accident investigation and review board after the loss of that shuttle in 2003. This is a seriously good book about a true spaceflight pioneer, and a man who, while he might slip under the radar of most Americans, is an absolute legend of flight beyond our planet. Both authors are to be congratulated on creating this stirring and highly-recommended book. Destination Moon Rod Pyle Hardcover Carlton Books Ltd 01 August, 2005 Amazon price*: £11.21 (list price £16.99) Used price*: £19.38 More Info & Buy Online Review: Good but,,,,,,,, (3/5) This book is well presented and gives a record of the manned moon mission in pictures. Not much on Apollo 7, 8, 9 and 10 - which were amazing missions in their own right and I would have liked to have seen more from them. Good but not great pictures of Apollo 11 onwards. A good buy. Review: Nicely presented; great for the new enthusiast (4/5) A nicely packaged 8-inch square hardback. Lots of photographs throughout, many full page and in colour. Starts with the Kennedy speech and the horror of Apollo 1. Missions 7, 8, 9 and 10 receive a few pages each but it is only with 11 onwards that the book brings in any detail. From Apollo 11 on, there is a chapter per mission, combining more good photos and transcripts of the conversations recorded from space and Mission Control. Finishes with two useful chapters: an interview with the eminently likeable Alan Bean, one-time Apollo 12 Lunar Module Pilot and now artist, plus a set of brief mission profiles of each of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo flights. Perhaps coverage of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project may have been a worthwhile addition? Little new here for the Apollo anorak, but a very good and very visual summary for the new enthusiast.