Spaceflight Book Thread

[mlorrey]

Just read:
Galactic Blues - Allen Steele
Anathem - Neal Stephenson - fantastic book, big, thick one, most of the plot is on a world where mathematicians and scientists are a priesthood sequestered from the general population as a means of retarding technological progress (this is a new idea on preventing a technological singularity), however the focus of the novel is on a spacecraft in orbit around Arbre which travels to alternate universes. How the residents of Arbre deal with a hostile alien ship that controls the high ground, gets into space when all their launch facilities have been rodded from orbit, and attacks the alien ship with sufficient force to force them into negotiating. Includes lots of zero-g activity.

[bad_astra]

Michael Collin's book, I forget the name. Good read, though.

[gladiator1332]

I'm currently reading Space Race by Deborah Cadbury

http://www.amazon.com/Space-Race-Between-America-Dominion/dp/0060845538/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1233374870&sr=11-1

It is so far a great read. It tells the story of Von Braun and Korolev, starting in WWII and then extending through the space race.

If you are interested in the men who built the rockets that enabled us to explore space, then I highly recommend it.

It is really frustrating to know that Von Braun and team had the Jupiter C ready to go. We could have had a satellite months before the Russians. However, the US Govt was banking on the Navy's Vanguard program.

[Jorge]

Michael Collin's book, I forget the name. Good read, though.

Carrying the Fire.

Concur on the opinion - Collins is easily the best writer of the ex-astros.

[edkyle99]

I'm a tech geek engineer, so I tend to read books that appeal to the tech geek engineer.

Saturn, Alan Lawrie, 2005
Saturn IB, Alan Lawrie, 2008
Rocketdyne- - Powering Humans into Space, Kraemer, 2006
Space Systems Failures, Harland and Lorenz, 2005
Space Shuttle, Jenkins, All editions
Titan II - A History of a Cold War Missile Program, Stumpf, 2000
Atlas - The Ultimate Weapon, Walker, 2005
Go for Launch - Illustrated History of Cape Canaveral, Powell, 2006
Fundamentals of Astrodynamics, Bate, Mueller, and White, 1971
Handbook of Astronautical Engineering, Koelle, 1961
Rocket Propulsion Elements, Sutton, 2nd Ed, 1958

I also like history

Korolev, Harford, 1997
Wernher von Braun - Crusader for Space, Stuhlinger and Ordway, 1996
Apollo, Murray and Cox, 1989
Countdown - A History of Space Flight, Heppenheimer, 1997
This New Ocean - Story of the First Space Age, Burrows, 1999
Moon Missions, Mellberg, 1997

I find myself hanging on to the occasional "dreamer" books. 

Starsailing, Friedman, 1988
Frontiers of Space, Bono and Gatland, 1976
Project Mars - A Technical Tale, Wernher von Braun, 1949 (pub 2006)

The holy grail for me, the falling-apart yellowed paperback that was my introduction to the fantastic story of the "Space Race", was this one, a book dedicated at the height of the Cold War to Grissom, White, Chaffee, and Komarov.

Appointment on the Moon, Richard S. Lewis, 1969

 - Ed Kyle

[GoForTLI]

I would second (third? fourth?) the Jenkins book. 

Two NASA histories I liked:

Where No Man Has Gone Before.  NASA SP-4214
Stages to Saturn, A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles.  NASA SP-4206

Also, I think the 2 Presidential Commission reports should be required reading. 

[DMeader]

Folks in another thread insist the X-15 is a spacecraft, so that gives me an opening to suggest one (actually two) of my favorite books.

"HYPERSONIC: The Story of The North American X-15" and "X-15 Photo Scrapbook", both by Tony R. Landis and Dennis R. Jenkins.

[overby]

Does anyone know of any books about the classified military programs of both Russia and the US? My interest has been piqued with the recent articles on Space Review about the mission patches and the Keyhole sats.

If you can find it, "Deep Black the startling truth behind America's top-secret spy satellites" by William Burrows.  A decade out of print, and surely just as out of date but it presents history.  ISBN 0-425-10879-1

"Eye in the Sky The story of the CORONA spy satellites".  Dwayne A. Day, John M. Logsdon, Brian Latell (ed) ISBN 1-56098-773-1

"America's Space Sentinels DSP satellites and National Security".  Jeffrey T. Richelson.  ISBN 0-7006-1096-0

[elmarko]

Some great suggestions here.

I'm still confused about the Jenkins books. Am I after the first 100 missions book, or the history of the development book?

Or both?

[Jorge]

Some great suggestions here.

I'm still confused about the Jenkins books. Am I after the first 100 missions book, or the history of the development book?

Or both?

They are the same book. The Third Edition is the one with "the first 100 missions" subtitle, and is the most recent.

[DMeader]

Some great suggestions here.

I'm still confused about the Jenkins books. Am I after the first 100 missions book, or the history of the development book?

Or both?

They are the same book. The Third Edition is the one with "the first 100 missions" subtitle, and is the most recent.

There are differences across the three editions. I've bought each one as they came out, and wouldn't part with any of them. 

[Jorge]

Some great suggestions here.

I'm still confused about the Jenkins books. Am I after the first 100 missions book, or the history of the development book?

Or both?

They are the same book. The Third Edition is the one with "the first 100 missions" subtitle, and is the most recent.

There are differences across the three editions. I've bought each one as they came out, and wouldn't part with any of them. 

This is true, and not just updates either. There was material on Buran and other topics in the second edition that was deleted from the third for space reasons (the publisher has a limit on how many pages they can bind in a single volume).

The fourth edition, to be published after shuttle retirement, may become a multivolume set in order to restore previously deleted material.

[Malderi]

I'd highly recommend "Two Sides of the Moon" by Dave Scott and Alexei Leonov. It's a dual autobiography that goes back and forth between first-person perspectives. It's just as interesting to read about their experiences growing up in 1920's America vs. Soviet Union (and WW2) as it is their space race experiences. Leonov has many insights into Gagarin and Korolev that I found fascinating.

Also, "Roving Mars" by Steve Squyres, if you're interested in that.

"Titans of Saturn" (about Cassini) is a very interesting book, written as a how-to for international project managers. It doesn't have much technical information or history, but it's extremely detailed in how the overall project was managed and how they kept dozens of teams in many countries working together, on-budget and on-time.

[elmarko]

I just finished reading Dark Side of the Moon.

Wow, talk about a hatchet job. Thing is, I can see where he's coming from on a lot of the points he brings up, regarding how pointless the space race was, but I can imagine it annoyed a lot of people when it came out.

[brihath]

I read quite a few but some highlights are:

Entering Space- I think Joe Allen was either the writer or narrator.  Great book at the beginning of the Shuttle era.  Nice pics.

Korolev- Great biography and excellent insight into the political games played in the early Soviet manned program.

Deep Black by William Burroughs-  Good book on the spy satellite programs.  Dated now but still a fascinating read.

Riding Rockets by Mike Mullane- I loved it for its honesty and irreverence.

Red Star in Orbit-  Jim Oberg got lots of information for this one at a time that getting that info must have been much harder than now.

For fiction- 2001: A Space Odyssey.  It will always be my favorite, but you have to read The Sentinel by Arthur C. Clarke, the short story that 2001 was based upon.