AIMING FOR THE STARS

Front Cover
Smithsonian, Sep 17, 1999 - Aerospace engineers - 338 pages
A senior curator of aeronautics at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum recounts the history of space flight from loose talk in the 16th century to the misfortunes of the Mir space station suffering neglect after glasnost. He describes the field's move from science fiction to laboratories in early 20th century America, Russia, and Germany; the rush for development during World War II and the Cold War; the goals and missions of US programs; the Challenge disaster; and the space adventures of Shannon Lucid. His emphasis throughout is on the personalities. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

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Contents

Racing to the Moon
167
Tables
180
Gemini
184
Copyright

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About the author (1999)

Tom D. Crouch is an aeronautics historian and curator. Crouch attended Ohio University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1966. He also attended Miami University and received a Master of Arts degree in history there in 1968. He later earned a Ph.D in history from the Ohio State University in 1976. In 2001 the Wright State University awarded him with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. Crouch is the author books and many articles, primarily on topics related to the history of flight technology. Crouch was awarded a 1989 Christopher Award for his book The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright. In 2005 he won the AIAA Gardner-Lasser Literature Prize for the book Wings: A History of Aviation From Kites to the Space Age.

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