Space Shuttle: The History of the National Space Transportation System The First 100 Missions, 3rd Edition
Banking on space enthusiasts' appetite for detail, Jenkins delves into enough minutiae of the space shuttle to enable, it seems, the building of one's own orbiter. Schematic diagrams abound, as do more than 1,000 photos of all aspects of the space shuttle system: construction, maintenance, transportation (piggyback on 747s), and launch pad infrastructure. Curiously, the launches constitute a minor visual element in Jenkins' presentation, but the book is aimed at technophiles, not Canaveral tourists rubbernecking a blastoff. The engineering oriented will linger over Jenkins' history of the design of reusable spacecraft, which began on the drawing boards of Nazi rocket scientists who proposed an atmosphere-skipping craft to bomb New York. The American military's desire for a nuclear bomber lay behind the first space shuttle project, the canceled Dyna-Soar spacecraft of the early 1960s. When revived in the early 1970s, minus the bomb bay, the space shuttle showed a compromise configuration; its might-have-been structures are attested by drawings of about 40 alternative concepts. Hard-core space fans will have all they can handle in Jenkins' comprehensive catalog.Gilbert TaylorCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved