Spaceships 2nd Edition An Illustrated History of the Real and the Imagined

by Miller, Ron; Shindell, Matthew; Weitekamp, Margaret A.

• ISBN13: 9781588347268
• ISBN10: 1588347265
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2023-01-24
• Publisher: Smithsonian Books

Summary

This revised and expanded second edition of Spaceships includes sixty-four pages worth of the newest developments in space technology

Spaceships: An Illustrated History of the Real and the Imagined explores how art and science have merged in the creation of real and fictional spaceships, from Mercury and Apollo spacecraft to Millennium Falcon and Starship Enterprise. This second edition is thoroughly updated to offer a complete history of spaceships. It builds off the original book with new information and developments in topics that include: 
 

Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne

Paul Allen’s Stratolaunch Systems

Bigelow Aerospace’s B330 inflatable space stations

SpaceX’s Falcon 9

Future Mars exploration, moon landers, and interstellar ships

New foreword from Bobak Ferdowsi, an American Flight engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

 
Award-winning author Ron Miller and new Smithsonian coauthors Matthew Shindell and Margaret Weitekamp take readers on a visual journey through the history of the spaceship, both in our collective imagination and in reality. Vivid illustrations trace spaceships through their conception, engineering, and building. The exquisitely detailed book charts the ubiquity of spaceships in the golden age of space travel (1950s and '60s) and their broad influence in popular art, television, film, and literature. Spaceships is a vibrant and visual book on the history of spaceships, past, present, and future.

Author Biography

RON MILLER is an artist and author who specializes in writing and
illustrating books on astronomy, astronautics, and science fiction. He has served on the faculty at the International Space University, as contributing editor for Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine, and as art director for the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum's Albert Einstein Planetarium. MATTHEW SHINDELL is curator of planetary science and exploration at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. MARGARET A. WEITEKAMP is curator and department chair of the Space History department at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.