How Spacecraft Fly

The aim of this popular science text is to explain aerodynamic and astrodynamic flight without the use of mathematics, in an informal style, for non-technical readers who are interested in spaceflight and spacecraft.

The book will open with a concise introductory chapter, chronicling the ‘space age’ up to the present, and a brief ‘forward look’ into near-future developments. Chapter 2 provides the historical context upon which the current developments in spaceflight have been built. Orbital motion will be introduced in Chapter 3, and how to get there using launch vehicles is addressed in Chapter 4. Chapters 5 and 6 look at how spacecraft are designed, and Chapter 7 addresses the additional design constraints imposed if the spacecraft has a human crew on board. Chapter 8 gives examples of current and proposed spacecraft missions, both Earth orbiting and interplanetary. Chapter 9 will look at near future manned flight developments – for example, a mission to Mars and/or space tourism. The book closes with a concluding chapter, which reflects on prospects for the future of robotic and manned space exploration.

Graham Swinerd has over thirty years of experience in spacecraft orbit design and analysis and in the design of spacecraft. He also has many years of experience as an engineer, both in industry, working for a number of years at British Aerospace Space Systems, and as a lecturer of spacecraft engineering at Southampton University, supervising project undergraduate and postgraduate research students. He has some 60 technical papers published in refereed journals, and numerous conference papers. He is also principal editor, and contributing author, of an award winning standard textbook in spacecraft design - 'Spacecraft Systems Engineering (3^rd Edition)', Fortescue, Stark and Swinerd, Wiley & Sons, 2003. Graham Swinerd is therefore ideally suited to author a book on the subject of the design and operation of spacecraft.

Award: Luigi Napolitano Literature Award, presented by the International Academy of Astronautics, at the 55th International Astronautics Congress,Vancouver, 3 October 2004.