After Sputnik: 50 Years of the Space Age

By Martin J. Collins

In the 50 years since Sputnik's historic orbit kickstarted a race to the stars, spaceflight has moved from a speculative and experimental science to a staple of contemporary life. Space exploration... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060897813
• ISBN13: 9780060897819
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Smithsonian Books (DC)
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 3.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 10.7" x 11.3"

Customer Reviews

You'll be proud to own this book.

First, how is this book so cheap? I've never seen many of the pictures in this book even though the subjects are so familiar. There are some very unique stories and subjects chosen for presentation in After Sputnik. I highly recommend this book for people who just want to collect 5-10 books on general space history. Extremely well-done.

After Sputnik - An Appreciation

Definitely coffee table size. The photos were an initial attraction, but the text is easy to read, interesting and very informative. Most of the pictures come from exhibits in the Smithsonian Institution. This book is good for a casual browse, but is also the sort of book that you might like to read from cover to cover. It is well worth the price.

Seldom Seen Artifacts from the Space Age

Another great book from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The book has many color photos and some black and white of each artifact and a one page detail of each item , starting with Robert Goddard's Liquid Oxygen Flask and the Carrier and goes forward with Rockets and V-2, Satellites, and Guidence systems and many unusal items such as the Bell Rocket Belt No 2. Pressure Suits, Russian stamp of Gagarin flight, lunch box, sample of Soviet Green Cabbage Soup, a pack of Apollo and Soyuz cigarettes and it also has Sally Ride's flight suite Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Capsules,Apollo 16 Commander Checklist, Gemini V mission patch that was never used and the Soyuz spacecraft and many other in glorious color .And the book ends with SpaceShip One ( the first Private spaceship to enter outer space) This book will entertain you and your children and will teach you about the space race through the many different items on display, it the next best thing to being at the Air and Space Museum.