Sputnik 1         Explorer 1         Vanguard 1

This web site lists important ("classic") publications on history of astronautics, rockets, space systems, and space exploration. 

In addition, a section with important ("classic") publications (including memoirs) on history of atomic/nuclear programs is included.

 

HISTORY Corporate and Organizational Histories Astronautics and Space (general) Rockets and Rocket Propulsion Spacecraft and Space Systems People and Memoirs Atomic/Nuclear Programs - History and Memoirs Space and Rockets in Foreign Countries Corona Space Reconnaissance System V-2 (A-4) Space in Art and Literature ("classics") Space Movies ("classic")	Mike's books	To suggest a book to be added to the list, please send an e-mail to Mike
		To web site Books on Astronautics, Spacecraft, and Space Technology

Book preview    Mike's Blazing the Trail. The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry (published by AIAA in 2004) received the Luigi Napolitano Award from the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) in 2006.  Book preview Published in 2007   –  From Astronautics to Cosmonautics, 2007

Lecture (Webcast)  –  1 hr 10 min
 The Road to Space. The First Thousand Years.

Fifty years ago in October of 1957, the first artificial satellite of the Earth was launched into space.
The lecture focuses on the history of the events that led us to the space age.

Space: From Firecrackers to Interstellar Flight
webcast:   Part 1 (87 min);   Part 2 (84 min)

Video clips  –  Space Mission design and Spacecraft Design

Video clips illustrating effects of interest to space mission design and to spacecraft design.

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		Corporate and Organizational Histories
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		Aerojet: The Creative Company, Aerojet History Group, 1995 (ISBN 0-9659769-0-4)
		T.D. Crouch, Rocketeers and Gentlemen Engineers: A History of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics ... and What Came Before, AIAA, 2006
		A.J. Dunar and S. Waring, Power to Explore. A History of Marshall Space Flight Center 1960-1990, NASA, 1999
		D. Dyer, TRW: Pioneering Technology and Innovation Since 1900, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Mass., 1998
		M. Gruntman, Blazing the Trail. The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry, AIAA, 2004
		R.S. Kraemer and V. Wheelock, Rocketdyne: Powering Humans into Space, AIAA, 2006
		R.D. Launius, NASA: A History of The U.S. Civil Space Program, Krieger, Malabar, Fla., 1994
		J.E. Lewis, Spy Capitalism: Itek and the CIA, Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, CT, 2002
		R.A. McDonald (ed.), Beyond Expectations - Building an American National Reconnaissance Capability: Recollections of the Pioneers and Founders of National Reconnaissance, ASPRS, 2002
		B.L.R. Smith, The RAND Corporation, Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA, 1966
		F.H. Winter, Prelude to Space Age: the Rocket Societies, 1924-1940, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, 1983

		Astronautics and Space (general)
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		D.R. Baucom, The Origins of SDI, 1944-1983, University Press of Kansas, 1992
		W.E. Burrows, This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age, 1998.
		A. R. Curtis, ed., Space Almanac, Gulf Publishing, 1992
		D.H. DeVorkin, Science with a Vengeance, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1992
		C.S. Gillmor and J.R. Spreiter,eds., Discovery of the Magnetosphere, AGU, 1997
		M. Gruntman, Blazing the Trail. The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry, AIAA, 2004
		M. Gruntman, From Astronautics to Cosmonautics, BookSurge, North Charleston, SC, 2007
		A.G. Haley, Rocketry and Space Exploration, Van Nostrand, Princeton, NJ, 1958
		T.A. Heppenheimer, Countdown, A History of Space Flight, Wiley and Sons, 1997
		L.M. Krauss, The Physics of Star Trek, Harper Collins, 1995
		C.G. Lasby, Project Paperclip, Atheneum, NY, 1971
		D. Lasser, The Conquest of Space, Apogee Books, 2002. (Reprint of a classic 1931 book)
		J.M. Logsdon (ed.), Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program: Vol. 1: Organizing for Exploration Vol.1, Washington, DC, 1996
		J.M. Logsdon (ed.), Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program: Vol. 2, Washington, DC, 1996
		J.M. Logsdon (ed.), Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program: Vol. 3, Using Space, Washington, DC, 1996
		J.M. Logsdon (ed.), Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the United States Civil Space Program, V. 4: Accessing Space, Washington, DC, 1996
		M. Okuda, D. Okuda, and D. Mirek, The Star Trek Encyclopedia. A Reference Guide to the Future, Pocket Books, 1994
		G.K. O'Neill, The High Frontier
		M. Rycroft, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Space, Cambridge University Press, 1990
		W. Von Braun, F. I. Ordway III, D. Dooling, Space Travel. A History, Harper and Row, 1995
		F.H. Winter and F.R. van der Linden, 100 Years of Flight, A Chronicle of Aerospace History, 1903-2003, AIAA, 2003

		Rockets and Rocket Propulsion
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		J. Baar and W. Howard, Polaris! The Concept & Creation of a New and Mighty Weapon, Harcourt, Brace, and Co., 1960
		R.E. Bilstein, Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles
		J.L. Chapman, Atlas: The Story of a Missile, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1960
		J.N. Gibson, Navaho Missile Project: The Story of the "Know-How" Missile of American Rocketry, Schiffer Military/Aviation History, 1996
		D. Graham, High Frontier. A Strategy for National Survival, 1983
		D. E. Graves, Sir William Congreve and the Rocket Red Glare, Museum Restoration Service, 1989
		C.M. Green and M. Lomask, Vanguard: A History, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, 1971
		M. Gruntman, Blazing the Trail. The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry, AIAA, 2004
		J. Hartt, The Mighty Thor: Missile in Readiness, Duell, Sloan and Pearce, New York, 1961
		T.A. Heppenheimer, The Space Shuttle Decision, 1965-1972. History of the Space Shuttle, Vol.1, Smithsonian Institution Press
		T.A. Heppenheimer, Development of the Space Shuttle, 1972-1981. History of the Space Shuttle, Vol.2, Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002
		J. W. Herrick and E. Burgess, editors, Rocket Encyclopedia, Aero Publishers, 1959
		R.S. Kraemer and V. Wheelock, Rocketdyne: Powering Humans into Space, AIAA, 2006
		R.D. Launius and D.R. Jenkins (eds.), To Reach the High Frontier. A History of the U.S. Launch Vehicles, Univ. of Kentucky Press, Lexington, KY, 2002
		A. Lawrie, Saturn, Collector's Guide Publishing, 2005
		D. Millard, The Black Arrow Project: A History of a Satellite Launch Vehicle and Its Engines, Science Museum, London, 2001
		J. Neufeld, The Development of Ballistic Missiles in the United States Air Force, 1945–1960, U.S. Air Force, Washington, DC, 1990
		H. Noordung, The Problems of Space Travel. The Rocket Motor, translation, NASA SP-4026, NASA, Washington, DC, 1995
		F.I. Ordway III and R.C. Wakeford, International Missile and Spacecraft Guide, McGraw–Hill, New York, 1960
		M.W. Rosen, The Viking Rocket Story, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1955
		G.P. Sutton, History of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines, AIAA, 2006
		P.J. Turchi, editor, Propulsion Techniques: Action and Reaction, AIAA, 1998
		C. Walker with J. Powell, Atlas: The Ultimate Weapon. By Those Who Built It, Apogee Books, 2005
		K.P. Werrell, The Evolution of the Cruise Missile, Air University Press, 1985
		F.H. Winter, The First Golden Age of Rocketry, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995

		Spacecraft and Space Systems
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		W.R. Corliss, Scientific Satellites, NASA SP-133, Washington, DC, 1967
		W.R. Corliss, Spacecraft Tracking, NASA EP-55, Washington, DC, 1969
		C.S. Draper, W. Wrigley, and J. Hovorka, Inertial Guidance, Pergamon, New York, 1960
		M. Gruntman, Blazing the Trail. The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry, AIAA, 2004
		E.G. Hall, Journey to the Moon. The History of the Apollo Guidance Computer, AIAA, 1996
		T.J. Kelly, Moon Lander: How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module
		J.E. Lewis, Spy Capitalism: Itek and the CIA, Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, CT, 2002
		D. H. Martin, Communication Satellites, 1958-1995, The Aerospace Corporation, May 1996
		D. MacKenzie, Inventing Accuracy: an Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1993
		J.T. Richelson, America's Space Sentinels: DSP Satellites and National Security, Univ. Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 1999
		J. Stoff, Building Moonships : The Grumman Lunar Module, Arcadia, 2004
		W. Von Braun, The Mars Project
		D.J. Whalen, The Origins of Satellite Communications: 1945-1965, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, 2002

		People and Memoirs
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		N.R. Augustine, Augustine's Laws, AIAA, 1983
		J. Cornwell, Hitler's Scientists. Science, War, and the Devil's Pact, Penguin, 2003
		W. Dornberger, V-2, Viking Press, New York, 1954
		R.H. Goddard, The Papers of Robert H. Goddard, edited by E.C. Goddard and G.E. Pendray, Vol. I: 1898–1924, McGraw–Hill, New York, 1970
		M. Gruntman, Blazing the Trail. The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry, AIAA, 2004
		M. Gruntman, From Astronautics to Cosmonautics, BookSurge, North Charleston, SC, 2007
		J. Harford, Korolev, John Wiley and Sons, 1997
		D.K. Huzel, Peenemünde to Canaveral, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1962
		J.R. Killian, Jr., Sputnik, Scientists, and Eisenhower, MIT Press, 1977
		G. Kranz, Failure is not an Option, Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond, Simon and Schuster, 2000
		C.L. "Kelly" Johnson with M. Smith, Kelly. More Than My Share of It All, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989
		J.B. Medaris and A. Gordon, Countdown for Decision, Putnam, New York, 1960
		S. Ramo, The Business of Science, Hill and Wang, New York, 1988
		B.R. Rich and L. Janos, Skunk Works. A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed, Little, Brown, and Co., 1994
		E. Stuhlinger and F. I. Ordway III, Wernher von Braun, Crusader for Space: A Biographical Memoir, Krieger, Malabar, Fla., 1994, 1996
		T. von Karman with L. Edson, The Wind and Beyond, Little, Brown and Co., 1967

		Atomic/Nuclear Programs - History and Memoirs
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		J. Bernstein (annotated by), Hitler's Uranium Club. The Secret Recordings at Farm Hall, Copernicus Books, 2001
		H.A. Bethe, The Road from Los Alamos, Simon and Schuster, 1991
		J. Cornwell, Hitler's Scientists. Science, War, and the Devil's Pact, Penguin, 2003
		L. Fermi, Atoms in the Family. My Life with Enrico Fermi, University of Chicago Press, 1961
		B. Goldschmidt, Atomic Rivals. A Candid Memoir of Rivalries Among the Allies Over the Bomb, Rutgers University Press, 1990
		S.A. Goudsmit, Alsos,  AIP, 1983
		L.M. Groves, Now It Can Be Told. The Story of the Manhattan Project, Da Capo Press, 1983
		R.G. Hewlett and O.E. Anderson, Jr., The New World, 1939/1946, Vol.1, A History of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1962
		D. Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb: the Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939-1956, Yale University Press, 1994
		L. Johnson and D. Schaffer, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The First Fifty Years, University of Tennessee Press, 1994
		W. Lanouette with B. Silard, Genius in the Shadows. A Biography of Leo Szilard, The Man Behind the Bomb, University of Chicago Press, 1992
		R. Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Simon and Schuster, 1995
		R. Rhodes, Dark Sun. The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, Simon and Schuster, 1996
		A. Sakharov, Memoirs, Alfred A. Knopf, 1990
		G.T. Seaborg with B.S. Loeb, Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Test Ban, University of California Press, 1981
		E. Segre, Enrico Fermi Physicist, University of Chicago Press, 1970
		R. Serber, The Los Alamos Primer, University of California Press, 1992
		H.D. Smyth, Atomic Energy for Military Purposes. Official Report on the Development of the Atomic Bomb Under the Auspices of the United States Government, 1940-1945, Stanford University Press, 1989
		L.L. Strauss, Men and Decisions, Doubleday, 1962
		E. Teller with J. Shoolery, Memoirs. A Twentieth-Century Journey in Science and Politics, Perseus Publishing, 2001
		S.M. Ulam, Adventures of a Mathematician, University of California Press, 1991
		H.F. York, The Advisors. Oppenheimer, Teller, and the Superbomb, Stanford University Press, 1976
		D. Zimmerman, Top Secret Exchange. The Tizard Mission and the Scientific War, McGill-Queen's University Press, 1996

		Space and Rockets in Foreign Countries
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		C. Carlier and M. Gilli, The First Thirty Years at CNES, La Documentation française/CNES, Paris, 1994 (English edition, 1995)
		I. Chang, Thread of the Silkworm, Basic Books, New York, 1995
		J. Johnson-Freese, The Chinese Space program: A Mystery within a Maze, Krieger, 1998
		V.P. Glushko, Development of Rocketry and Space Technology in the USSR (in English), Novosti Press, Moscow, 1973
		M. Gruntman, Blazing the Trail. The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry, AIAA, 2004
		M. Gruntman, From Astronautics to Cosmonautics, BookSurge, North Charleston, SC, 2007
		R. Hall and D.J. Shayler, The Rocket Men: Vostok and Voskhod. The first Soviet Manned Spaceflights, Springer, 2001
		R. Hall and D.J. Shayler, Soyuz: A Universal Spacecraft, Springer, 2003
		J. Harford, Korolev, John Wiley and Sons, 1997
		B. Harvey, The Japanese and Indian Space Programmes: Two Roads Into Space, Springer-Verlag, New York, 2000
		D. Millard, The Black Arrow Project: A History of a Satellite Launch Vehicle and Its Engines, Science Museum, London, 2001
		H. Massey and M.O. Robins, History of the British Space Science, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 1986
		P. Morton, Fire Across the Desert, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1989, 1997
		A.A. Siddiqi, Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the space race, 1945-1974, NASA, 2000
		A.A. Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, University Press of Florida, 2003

		Corona Space Reconnaissance System
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		M. Gruntman, Blazing the Trail. The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry, AIAA, 2004
		F.C.E. Oder, J.C. Fitzpatrick, and P.E. Worthman, The Corona Story, National Reconnaissance Office, 1987
		R.A. McDonald (ed.), Beyond Expectations - Building an American National Reconnaissance Capability: Recollections of the Pioneers and Founders of National Reconnaissance, ASPRS, 2002>
		C. Peebles, The Corona Project. America's First Spy Satellite, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1997
		K.C. Ruffner (ed.), Corona: America's First Satellite Program, Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, DC, 1995

		V-2  (A-4)
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		D.H. DeVorkin, Science With A Vengeance, Springer-Verlag, 1992
		M. Gruntman, Blazing the Trail. The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry, AIAA, 2004
		D.K. Huzel, Peenemünde to Canaveral, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1962
		G.P. Kennedy, Vengeance Weapon 2, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, 1983
		C.G. Lasby, Project Paperclip, Atheneum, NY, 1971
		M. Middlebrook, The Peenemünde Raid, Cassel & Co., London, 1988
		M.J. Neufeld, The Rocket and the Reich. Peenemunde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era, The Free Press, 1995
		F.I. Ordway III and M.R. Sharpe, The Rocket Team, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1982
		E. Stuhlinger and F.I. Ordway III, Wernher von Braun. Crusader for Space, Krieger, Malabar, FL, 1996

		Space in Art and Literature ("classics" only)
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		M. Gruntman, Blazing the Trail. The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry, AIAA, 2004
		E.E. Hale, Brick Moon.
		R. Miller, The Dream Machines. An Illustrated History of the Spaceship in Art, Science and Literature, Krieger Publishing Co., 1993
		R. Miller, F.C. Durant III, and M. Schuetz, The Art of Chesley Bonestell.
		R.D. Launius and B. Ulrich, NASA and the Exploration of Space: With Works from the Nasa Art Collection.
		F.I. Ordway III, Visions of Spaceflight: Images from the Ordway Collection, Publishers Group West , 2001
		M.H. Schuetz, A Chesley Bonestell Space Art Chronology, Universal Publishers, 1999>
		J. Verne, From the Earth to the Moon.
		J. Verne, Round the Moon.

		Space Movies ("classics" only)
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		Apollo 13: The Real Story
		Buck Rogers (1939)  –  DVD
		The Liftoff! Success and Failure on the Launch Pad  –  DVD
		The Mighty Saturns – Saturn V  –  DVD
		Moon Race  –  History of Apollo (1998)  –  VHS
		Nukes in Space – Rainbow Bombs (1999)  –  DVD
		The Right Stuff  –  DVD
		Star Trek: Original Series  –  DVD
		Star Trek: Next Generation Series  –  DVD
		Star Trek: Voyager Series  –  DVD
		Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Series   –  DVD
		Star Trek – The Motion Pictures Collection (2002)   –  DVD
		Star Trek – The Motion Pictures DVD Collection (2001)  –  DVD
		Star Wars Trilogy  –  DVD
		Tom Corbett Space Cadet, Vol. 1 (1950)   –  VHS
		Tom Corbett-Space Cadet, Vol. 2 (1950)  –  VHS
		Tomorrowland (Disney's classic of 1950s)  –  DVD
		The War of the Worlds (1953)  –  DVD

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