Space Shuttle!; The fascinating story of the new earth-space transportation system

n.p.: n.p., 1977. First Printing. Wraps. Good. 64 pages. Wraps. Profusely illustrated (some in color). Cover has some wear and soiling This was published prior to the first Space Shuttle launch. The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS). The first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights beginning in 1982. Five complete Shuttle systems were built and used on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011, launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Operational missions launched numerous satellites, interplanetary probes, and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST); conducted science experiments in orbit; and participated in construction and servicing of the International Space Station. The Shuttle fleet's total mission time was 1322 days, 19 hours, 21 minutes and 23 seconds. The author was a science writer for the Los Angeles Times and had been a science editor at Newsweek and a reporter for Aviation Week magazine. Among his awards were: the Westinghouse-American Association for the Advancement of Science (1975), the Atomic Industrial Forum (1976), the National Society of Professional Engineers (1977) and the Aerospace Writers Association (1969).