Profiles seven engineers and scientists who made space flight possible, including Robert Goddard, Sergei Korolev, and Wernher von Braun.
Gr 5-9-Cleverly arranging seven brief biographies in chronological order to tell the history of space flight, Richie devotes each chapter to one man and his role in the development of the field. The well-known work of Robert Goddard and Wernher von Braun on rocketry is supplemented by the contributions of five other scientists. They include: Max Faget, the designer of the American space capsule; John Houbolt, who promoted the idea of lunar orbit rendezvous that shaped the Apollo missions; William Pickering, whose work on planetary probes eventually led to the Mariner, Viking, and Voyager flights; Sergei Korolev, the chief designer and driving force behind the Soviet space program; and Dale Reed, whose study of lifting bodies contributed to the space shuttle's design. The book concludes with speculative "next steps" concerning the future of space exploration. The biographies are readable, entertaining, and informative. They work well together, showing the interrelatedness of the subjects' work, and avoid the disjointed feeling of many collective biographies. The archival black-and-white photos not only illustrate the personalities, but also add to the text by showing their projects and the equipment they developed. Nathan Aaseng's The Space Race (Lucent, 2001) is similar in topic and level, but tells the story from a broader, historical and political perspective. However, Richie's book provides more detail on several of these men than is available elsewhere at this level.-Jeffrey A. French, Euclid Public Library, OH Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Shopping Cart
