

- Nasa space shuttle final launch manual#
- Nasa space shuttle final launch archive#
- Nasa space shuttle final launch series#
- Nasa space shuttle final launch tv#
I still have my copy, and it's now on my almost-four-year-old daughter's bookshelf. There are definitely more updated children's books out there than this one, but my childhood choice was the aptly named "Space Shuttle," by Kate Petty, published in 1984. It sits proudly on my bookshelf next to my Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual.

Nasa space shuttle final launch manual#
Disappointingly, the manual doesn't detail a complete space shuttle teardown and rebuild, but it still touches on virtually every technical and operational aspect of the orbiter, external tank and solid rocket boosters.įor an all-in-one technical book with copious illustrations and photographs, it's still my favorite book on the shuttle. The "NASA Space Shuttle Owners' Workshop Manual (1981 onwards, all models)" is a geeky shuttle technical explainer written in the style of the well-regarded Haynes automotive manuals. Besides creating a funding squeeze, the shuttle was NASA's only transportation option at one point, which delayed or cancelled some missions and forced redesigns of others. "Journey into Space" is primarily a short history of planetary exploration, but it also describes the impact-both positive and negative-the shuttle had on NASA's science programs. Murray co-founded the Society with Carl Sagan and Louis Friedman, and wrote this book shortly after his tenure as the director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory ended. I read Bruce Murray's "Journey into Space" shortly after I began writing for The Planetary Society in 2011. Surely you remember that fabled day in 1926 when Robert Goddard, father of modern rocketry, lit off the first liquid fueled rocket engine, sending a device the size and shape of a coat tree screaming into the low clouds over Auburn, Massachusetts? Remember how he called to his wife, "Come quick, dear, I've invented the expendable launch vehicle!" The planetary perspective The piece also contains a line that has stuck with me for years, which still makes me laugh:
Nasa space shuttle final launch archive#
The article no longer seems to exist on Washington Monthly's website, but you can still read a copy in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Some of Easterbrook's occasional NASA pieces are prone to overreach, but this sardonic, far-ranging critique is stunningly accurate in predicting the myriad of ways the shuttle program would not live up to original expectations. In April 1980, a year before the maiden launch of space shuttle Columbia, Washington Monthly magazine published a scathing take on the program by Gregg Easterbrook, titled "The Spruce Goose of Outer Space." The article was featured on the magazine's cover with the titillating headline "Beam us out of this death trap, Scotty!" These two books are a great tribute to the multitude of people that helped make the program a reality. Many of the missions are grouped together by type (classified flights, for instance), making easier-to-digest narratives. It's a tough task to recap all 135 shuttle missions, but Hitt, Smith and Houston make it doable by peppering the books with dozens of interviews, including personal recollections from astronauts, program managers, engineers and flight controllers. "Wheels Stop," by Rick Houston, handles the rest. "Bold They Rise," by David Hitt and Heather Smith, covers the shuttle flights up through the Challenger accident. After the shuttles retired, two novels were released chronicling the program.
Nasa space shuttle final launch series#
I've noted before that I'm a fan of the "Outward Odyssey: A People's History of Spaceflight" series of books from the University of Nebraska Press. I didn't include anything specific about the Challenger or Columbia accidents, but I'd recommend starting with the official government commission reports for a deep dive on those. On the five-year anniversary of Atlantis' final launch, here are five favorite pieces of writing (well, technically, six) that helped shape my thinking about the space shuttle program. Much has been written about the ups and downs of the space shuttle era. But what about the dream behind the shuttle program itself? Though the space shuttles are now five years distant in NASA's rear-view mirror, the outcome of that dream won't be determined for many years. He said it was an allusion to all the science astronauts could now conduct aboard the completed ISS, which will help realize the dream of sending humans to deep space and Mars. I recently asked Diller what he meant by that phrase. "On the shoulders of the space shuttle program, America will continue the dream."
Nasa space shuttle final launch tv#
"The final liftoff of Atlantis!" exclaimed NASA TV commentator George Diller, as the shuttle cleared the launch tower. Five years ago today, space shuttle Atlantis lifted off for the final time, kicking off one last cargo run to the International Space Station the shuttles were so vital in constructing.
