Space Shuttle: The History Of The National Space Transportation System The First 100 Missions

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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.

Hardcover: 524 pages

Publisher: Dennis r. Jenkins; 3rd edition (March 22, 2001)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0963397451

ISBN-13: 978-0963397454

Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 1.2 x 11.2 inches

Shipping Weight: 4.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #112,233 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #5 in Books > Engineering & Transportation > Engineering > Aerospace > Aircraft Design & Construction #43 in Books > Textbooks > Engineering > Aeronautical Engineering #55 in Books > Engineering & Transportation > Engineering > Aerospace > Astronautics & Space Flight

The product description is correct in saying that this book contains "enough minutiae of the space shuttle to enable, it seems, the building of one's own orbiter." On technical matters, this book is brilliant. It contains a depth of information about the shuttle that is probably unmatched anywhere else. The printed information and diagrams are exhaustive, not just about the shuttle as it was built, but also about the dozens of proposals that came before the shuttle and influenced its design. If a technical history is what you seek, you'll find none better than this book.Although I enjoyed this book, it bills itself as a complete history of the shuttle, not just a technical history. The real shortcoming of the book is its failure to examine the shuttle program critically. A 2012 Forbes article said that "criticizing the Space Shuttle is like punching America in the face." While many people do have an instinctive need to defend the shuttle at all costs, the fact is that the shuttle was delivered years late and came with enormous cost overruns, limited capability, and multiple safety problems that were impossible to remedy.It's important to remember the promises NASA made for the shuttle. In the 1970s it was sold as a safe, extremely low cost, reliable means to access space on a weekly basis. It would serve the needs of both commercial launch customers and the US military. In short, it would be so cheap and versatile that it would make disposable rockets a relic of the past. These promises turned out not just to be unrealistic, but unrealistic in the extreme.

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