Space Shuttle : The History of the National Space Transportation System. The First Hundred 100 Missions

Cape Canaveral: The Author, 2010. 3rd edition. As New. quarto. laminated boards viii + 513pp., colour & b/w plates, text ills., diags., appends., index, This 80 year history chronicles the development of reusable lifting-reentry spacecraft. From the early theoretical works of Eugen Sanger in Germany in the 1920s, through the Cold War developments in the US and finally to the ultimate flight experiment - the Space Shuttle. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first space shuttle launch, this greatly expanded 3rd edition adds previously uncovered early designs, details the latest modifications to the operational vehicles, explores some of the proposed future upgrades, and provides expanded coverage of the first one hundred Space Shuttle missions. To fully understand the magnitude of the problem facing the designers of the Space Shuttle, the book begins with the first proposals for lifting-reentry vehicles