For anyone who has ever looked up at the night sky and wondered, "Are we alone?" A brilliant examination of the science behind the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and its pioneer, Jill Tarter, the inspiration for the main character in Carl Sagan's Contact. Jill Tarter is a pioneer, an innovator, an adventurer, and a controversial force. At a time when women weren't encouraged to do much outside the home, Tarter ventured as far out as she...

"On January 28, 1996, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart of the Atlantic Ocean, killing all seven people on board. Like disaster is a defining moment in twentieth-century history--yet the full story of what happened, and why, has never been told. It's a compelling tale of ambition and ingenuity undermined by political cynicism and cost-cutting in the interests of burnishing national prestige. A masterful blend of riveting human drama and fascinating...

"A young Russian sits inside a tiny capsule on top of the Soviet Union's most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile--originally designed to carry a nuclear warhead--and blasts into the skies. His name is Yuri Gagarin. And he is about to make history. Traveling at almost 18,000 miles per hour--ten times faster than a rifle bullet--Gagarin circles the globe in just 106 minutes. From his windows he sees the earth as nobody has before, crossing...

In August 1968, NASA made a bold decision: in just sixteen weeks, the United States would launch humankind's first flight to the moon. Only the year before, three astronauts had burned to death in their spacecraft, and since then the Apollo program had suffered one setback after another. Meanwhile, the Russians were winning the space race, the Cold War was getting hotter by the month, and President Kennedy's promise to put a man on the moon by the...

The history of the helicopter may be traced back to the Chinese flying top (c. 400 BC) and to the work of Leonardo da Vinci, who sketched designs for a vertical flight machine utilizing a screw-type propeller. In the late 19th-century, Thomas Edison experimented with helicopter models, realizing that no such machine would be able to fly until the development of a sufficiently lightweight engine. When the internal combustion gasoline engine came on...

Artfully curated by James R. Hansen, A Reluctant Icon: Letters to Neil Armstrong is a companion volume to Dear Neil Armstrong: Letters to the First Man from All Mankind, collecting hundreds more letters Armstrong received after first stepping on the moon until his death in 2012. Providing context and commentary, Hansen has assembled the letters by the following themes: religion and belief; anger, disappointment, and disillusionment; quacks, conspiracy...

An excellent introduction to the study of inviscid airflow using potential theory, this book is a longtime university text and reference and a classic in its field. This edition is a complete reprint of the revised 1966 edition, which brings the subject up to date. Includes a wealth of problems, illustrations, and cross-references.

The Cook's Decameron: a study in taste, containing over two hundred recipes for Italian dishes by W. G. Waters. libreka classics — These are classics of literary history, reissued and made available to a wide audience. Immerse yourself in well-known and popular titles!

The emerging commercial space industry, otherwise known as NewSpace is on a roll. Lots of missions are planned for the future, but a lot has also happened in the past ten years. Interviews from many business professionals fill the book, giving a firsthand perspective on everything from the 2008-2009 recession, the CubeSat Revolution, and the rise of launch vehicle providers. For anyone who wants to know what has happened in NewSpace economy over the...

This book is comprised of two papers written by Robert Goddard for the Smithsonian Institution: "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes" and "Liquid Propellant Rocket Development." Two of the most significant publications in the history of rockets and jet propulsion, these reports appeared in 1919 and 1936, respectively. 96 black-and-white illustrations.