Books in the Outward Odyssey: A People's History of Spaceflight series

The talented men (and later women) who worked in mission control, the room located on the third floor of Building 30 would become known by many as "The Cathedral". None of NASA's storied accomplishments would have been possible without the people who worked there. Interviews with dozens of individuals who worked in the historic third-floor mission control room bring the compelling stories to life.

Nearly forty years passed between the Apollo moon landings, the grandest accomplishment of a government-run space programme, and the Ansari X PRIZE-winning flights of SpaceShipOne, the greatest achievement of a private space programme. As we hover on the threshold of commercial spaceflight, authors Chris Dubbs and Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom look back at how we got to this point.

Tells the dramatic story of America's first space station from beginning to fiery end

Explores a critical period of space history when humans dared an expansive leap into the inner solar system. With an irreverent and engaging style, Jay Gallentine conveys the trials and triumphs of the people on the ground who conceived and engineered the missions that put robotic spacecraft on the heavenly bodies nearest our own.

Near the end of the Apollo 15 mission, David Scott and fellow moonwalker James Irwin placed on the lunar soil a small tin figurine called "The Fallen Astronaut". By telling the stories of the sixteen astronauts and cosmonauts who died in the quest to reach the moon between 1962 and 1972, this book conveys the human cost of the space race.

Beyond Blue Skies examines the thirty-year period after World War II during which aviation experienced an unprecedented era of progress that led the United States to the boundaries of outer space.

Drawing on interviews with astronauts, cosmonauts, their families, technicians, and scientists, as well as Soviet and American government documents, the authors craft a remarkable story of the golden age of spaceflight as both an intimate human experience and a rollicking global adventure.

Although the dream of flying is as old as the human imagination, the notion of rocketing into space may have originated with Chinese gunpowder experiments during the Middle Ages. Rockets as both weapons and entertainment are examined in this engaging history of how human beings acquired the ability to catapult themselves into space.

Tells the story of an elite group of space travellers who flew as members of many space shuttle crews from pre-Challenger days to Columbia in 2003. Not part of the regular NASA astronaut corps, these professionals known as ""payload specialists"" came from a wide variety of backgrounds and were chosen for a wide variety of scientific, political, and national security reasons.

Delves into the personal stories and recollections of men and women who were in line to fly a specific or future space mission but lost that opportunity due to personal reasons, mission cancellations, or even tragedies. While some of the subjects are familiar names in spaceflight history, the accounts of others are told here for the first time.

Tells the heart-wrenching story of the Columbia tragedy and the loss of the magnificent STS-107 crew.

After the Apollo program put twelve men on the moon and safely brought them home, anything seemed possible. In this spirit, the team at NASA set about developing the Space Shuttle, arguably the most complex piece of machinery ever created. This book tells the story of the Space Shuttle.

The Ultimate Engineer portrays NASA pioneer George M. Low's remarkable life, accomplishments, and legacy as a key visionary and leader.