Books by NASA History Division

These essays in celebration of the Wright brothers' first flight 100 years ago grew out of presentations by a group of prominent scholars in 2003 at a conference sponsored by the NASA History Division and held at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The volume focuses on the careers of some of the many men and women who helped to realize the dream of flight both through the atmosphere and beyond. These accounts are original and compelling because they examine the history of flight through the lens of biography. Collectively, these individuals helped to shape American aerospace history. There are obviously many other individuals that could, and arguably should, have been included in this collection, but we believe that the cross section of diverse individuals contained in this volume is important because it is symbolic of the dream of flight as a whole. These people all devoted their lives, and sometimes even sacrificed them, to the demands required for its realization.

NASA SP 2007-4410. NASA History Series. Recounts the story of the rise of Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) and its eventual demise. Tells of organizational, cultural, and personal confrontation. Organizational skirmishes involved the Space Council versus NASA, the White House versus congressional appropriators, and the Johnson Space Center versus the rest of the space agency--all seeking control of the national space policy process.

NASA SP 2010-4319. NASA History Series. This scholarly look at the Altitude Wind Tunnel covers the transformations the wind tunnel made in its long history from a wind tunnel doing full-scale testing for wartime applications, to a vacuum chamber supporting the Vision for Space Exploration, and even a brief period as home to Mercury astronaut training. The book also addresses the attempts to resurrect the facility and its eventual decommissioning and demolition.

NASA SP-2009-1704. Steven J. Dick, Editor. Based on a symposium held on October 28-29, 2008 at NASA. Scholars turn a critical eye toward NASA's first 50 years.

NASA-SP-2009-4802. NASA History Series. Edited by Steven J. Dick and Mark L. Lupisella. Authors with diverse backgrounds in science, history, anthropology, and more, consider culture in the context of the cosmos. How does our knowledge of cosmic evolution affect terrestrial culture? Conversely, how does our knowledge of cultural evolution affect our thinking about possible cultures in the cosmos? Are life, mind, and culture of fundamental significance to the grand story of the cosmos that has generated its own self-understanding through science, rational reasoning, and mathematics? Book includes bibliographical references and an index.