Purchase
Nasa and the End of the Space Shuttle Program
University Press of Florida
November 2007
On Sale: October 21, 2007
232 pages
ISBN: 081303146X
EAN: 9780813031460
Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction
The Space Shuttle was once the cornerstone of the U.S.
space program. However, each new flight brings us one step
closer to the retirement of the shuttle in 2010. Final
Countdown is the riveting history of NASA's Space Shuttle
program, its missions, and its impending demise. It also
examines the plans and early development of the space
agency's next major effort: the Orion Crew Exploration Capsule. Journalist Pat Duggins, National Public Radio's resident
"space expert," chronicles the planning stages of the
shuttle program in the early 1970s, the thrills of the first
flight in 1981, construction of the International Space
Station in the 1990s, and the decision in the early 2000s to
shut it down. As a rookie reporter visiting the Kennedy Space Center
hangar to view the Challenger wreckage, Duggins was in a
unique position to offer a poignant eyewitness account of
NASA's first shuttle disaster. In Final Countdown, he
recounts the agency's struggle to rebound after the
Challenger and Columbia tragedies, and explores how
politics, scientific entrepreneurship, and the human drive
for exploration have impacted the program in sometimes
unexpected ways. Duggins has covered eighty-six shuttle missions, and his
twenty-year working relationship with NASA has given him
unprecedented access to personnel. Many spoke openly and
frankly with him, including veteran astronaut John Young,
who discusses the travails to get the shuttle program off
the ground. Young's crewmate, astronaut Bob Crippen, reveals
the frustration and loss he felt when his first opportunity
to go into space on the first planned space station was
taken away. As the shuttle program winds down, more astronauts may face
similar disappointments. Final Countdown is a story of lost
dreams, new hopes, and the ongoing conquest of space.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy