Kennedy Space Center : Gateway to Space

by West-Reynolds, David

• ISBN13: 9781554070398
• ISBN10: 1554070392
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-08-28
• Publisher: Firefly Books Ltd

Summary

NASA's Kennedy Space Center is at the heart of America's adventure into space. It has served as the departure gate for every U.S. manned space flight mission and hundreds of unmanned rocket launches. Sprawled across 140,000 acres on Florida's Atlantic coast, it is now a major tourist attraction for visitors from around the world.

Author Biography

David West Reynolds is the author of six books, including Apollo: The Epic Journey to the Moon and the number l New York Times best-seller, Star Wars: Episode I, The Visual Dictionary. He holds a doctorate from the University of Michigan and is an expert in space exploration and its history.

David West Reynolds is the author of six books, including Apollo: The Epic Journey to the Moon and the number l New York Times best-seller, Star Wars: Episode I, The Visual Dictionary. He holds a doctorate from the University of Michigan and is an expert in space exploration and its history.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. 14
Prologue	p. 17
Gateway to Space
Rocketland	p. 21
Countdown	p. 39
Road to the Cape
Prototype	p. 45
Location	p. 57
Race for the Heavens
The Challenge	p. 69
Mercury	p. 79
Gemini	p. 97
Journey to the Moon
Saturn	p. 115
Moonshot	p. 139
Skylab and Soyuz	p. 153
The Shuttle
Vision Quest	p. 167
The Space Shuttle	p. 177
Beyond the Shuttle
Probes and Satellites	p. 205
Gateway to the Future	p. 217
KSC Timeline	p. 230
Recommended Reading	p. 237
Index	p. 241
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Prologue The mission objectives are decided elsewhere. The spacecraft are designed and built elsewhere. Today the astronauts are trained elsewhere, and their mission is controlled elsewhere. But the gateway to space lies here. All the elements of America's space program come together at Cape Canaveral's Kennedy Space Center.After everyone else in the vast NASA spaceflight organization has done his or her job, the Kennedy Space Center team bears the tremendous responsibility of being the last ones to make sure that all the work has been done right and that every component of a spacecraft will function properly. There will be no one after them to check their work or catch any mistakes.Space rockets require extremely elaborate preparations. Each rocket type must have a specialized launch pad tailored to its precise needs. Without painstaking preparatory operations and supporting equipment to match, a rocket is useless. The most sophisticated rockets in the world require the most sophisticated launch facilities, and the finest are found at the legendary places known as Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center.