Space Shuttle: The History of the National Space Transportation System The First 100 Missions - Hardcover

Dennis R. Jenkins

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0963397451 ISBN 13: 9780963397454

Publisher: Dennis r. Jenkins, 2001

Synopsis

This history chronicles the development of reusable spacecraft, including the full and fascinating history of Space Shuttle flights and all developmental and experimental craft. This book has been totally revised and updated since it was last published in 1996.

About this title

About the Author:

Dennis R. Jenkins is a consulting engineer in Cape Canaveral, Florida, working on various aerospace projects including 20 years on the Space Shuttle and several on the stillborn X-33 program. He is the author of Space Shuttle: The History of the National Space Transportation System – The First 100 Missions in addition to more than 30 other works on aerospace history.

From Booklist:

Banking on space enthusiasts' appetite for detail, Jenkins delves into enough minutiae of the space shuttle to enable, it seems, the building of one's own orbiter. Schematic diagrams abound, as do more than 1,000 photos of all aspects of the space shuttle system: construction, maintenance, transportation (piggyback on 747s), and launch pad infrastructure. Curiously, the launches constitute a minor visual element in Jenkins' presentation, but the book is aimed at technophiles, not Canaveral tourists rubbernecking a blastoff. The engineering oriented will linger over Jenkins' history of the design of reusable spacecraft, which began on the drawing boards of Nazi rocket scientists who proposed an atmosphere-skipping craft to bomb New York. The American military's desire for a nuclear bomber lay behind the first space shuttle project, the canceled Dyna-Soar spacecraft of the early 1960s. When revived in the early 1970s, minus the bomb bay, the space shuttle showed a compromise configuration; its might-have-been structures are attested by drawings of about 40 alternative concepts. Hard-core space fans will have all they can handle in Jenkins' comprehensive catalog. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Dennis r. Jenkins
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0963397451
• ISBN 13: 9780963397454
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 524