Maybe Dennis R Jenkins will put out a final edition of his SPACE SHUTTLE book soon. Last one came out back in '01. I think and "ultimate edition" would be great.
With the end of the program it seems a lot of shuttle books are coming out. Obviously Wings in Orbit will set the bar, but I ran across this today and wonder if anyone knows enough about the author and/or the project? Might be worth a pre-order...NASA Space Shuttle Manual: An Insight into the Design, Construction and Operation of the NASA Space ShuttleProduct DescriptionDesigned between 1969 and 1972 and first flown into space in 1981, the NASA Shuttle will have flown almost 140 missions by the time it is retired in 2011. David Baker describes the origin of the reusable launch vehicle concept during the 1960s, its evolution into a viable flying machine in the early 1970s, and its subsequent design, engineering, construction, and operation. The Shuttle’s internal layout and systems are explained, including the operation of life support, electrical-power production, cooling, propulsion, flight control, communications, landing, and avionics systems.About the AuthorDavid Baker joined the U.S. space program during the Apollo years and later worked on the development of NASA’s Space Shuttle. He has written widely on the spaceflight technology and is the editor of Aviation News.http://www.amazon.com/NASA-Space-Shuttle-Manual-Construction/dp/0760340765/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_c
Looks like this is out now at $17 - any takers? I hate being the first one to look at a book like this since I can't find any sample or other information anywhere, but I may if nobody else ordered.
Dr Baker's Shuttle presentation to the RAeS Stevenage (UK) group is available on-line at:https://sites.google.com/site/raesstevenage/project-updates/shuttlelecture
Well, it arrived today. How fitting, on the shuttle's 30th anniversary. If anyone has ever bought a Hayes repair manual, it actually has that same kind of feeling, though a hardcover, and a bit slimmer.Good paper stock. VERY image heavy, I have to say - almost 50% of the book. Pretty good images too: Concept vehicles, Enterprise at Vandenberg, a few of those 'interior' type of shots, transport from Palmdale, SRBs, External Tank interior images, pads, crawlers & crawlerway, payloads...almost like the program you buy at KSC but of the shuttle's history.It has lots of line drawings, for better or worse, but that's okay since that was the way it was done back then. That includes the SRMS, SSMEs, and internal orbiter structural design & layout. There's also close-ups of shuttle tiles & damage, Of course many of the images we've all seen, especially a good portion from L2 on Historial.It's written in editorial style, so there are two colunmns per page. It has a list price of $28 US ($30 CDN). For the price they're selling it at ($17), it is definitely worth it. If I had a teenager who was interested in space, this is a definite buy. Probably not something us space gurus would find anything really new in, but as a general retrospective of the shuttle program, and for the coffee table or doctor's office, it's pretty good. You know it's new when, in the table in the appendices, the only missions missing content are STS133, 134 & 135, but they are listed, and as the last listings in the table.
Take a look at page 122 of the book, 2 photos I took
