Imagining Space: Achievements, Predictions, Possibilities 1950-2050

By Roger D. Launius and Howard McCurdy

Space travel has gone from fantasy to reality in just fifty yearswhere will we be fifty years from now? This breathtaking book follows our projections for space exploration in the 1950s to our actual accomplishments today and goes on to predict the spacecraft, commerce, ecology, and manned explorations yet to come in the next 50 years. Lavishly illustrated, with a visionary foreword by Ray Bradbury as well as an adventurous text by NASA's chief historian and an expert on the U.S. space program, Imagining Space will inspire science fiction enthusiasts, pop culture fans, and anyone who has ever looked up at the stars in wonder.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811831159
• ISBN13: 9780811831154
• Release Date: July 2001
• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 2.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 1.0" x 1.0"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

With stunningly beautiful illustrations

With a special foreword by famed science fiction author Ray Bradbury, Imagining Space: Achievements, Predications, Possibilities 1950-2050 is an amazing, informative, thought-provoking, and superbly illustrated armchair traveler's guide - one that takes the reader to other planets, past the solar system, and beyond the Milky Way galaxy. It looks back to the 1950 predictions of rocket scientists and science fiction authors, to the present day space program, and forward to the possibilities of 2050. Chief NASA historian Roger D. Launius and Dr. Howard E. McCurdy of American University explore the dreams and realities of our past and future as connected to space travel, including speculations of one day exploring Mars and creating space colonies. Imagining Space is written in lay terminology so that its dreams can easily be imparted to the casual reader, but by far its most vivid asset are its stunningly beautiful illustrations; over 150 artists' renderings and photographs display a breathtaking, unforgettable glimpse into the past, present, and future of space travel. Very highly recommended for non-specialist general readers with an interest in the future beyond the boundaries of the Earth.