Skylab has a fascination among space professionals and enthusiasts alike and a book on the engineering and design of this space station has been argued for in blogs and chat rooms for many years. No other book has yet been published which describes the technical, design and engineering details of how Skylab was built and operated. There have been several biographies by astronauts relating their experiences on Skylab missions, but no comparable book on the technical aspects of this extraordinary programme.
Few launch vehicles are as iconic and distinctive as NASA's behemoth rocket, the Saturn V, and none left such a lasting impression on those who watched it ascend. Developed with the specific brief to send humans to the Moon, it pushed rocketry to new scales. Its greatest triumph is that it achieved its goal repeatedly with an enviable record of mission success. Haynes' Saturn V Manual tells the story of this magnificent and hugely powerful machine. It explains how each of the vehicle's three stages worked; Boeing's S-IC first stage with a power output as great as the UK's peak electricity consumption, North American Aviation's S-II troubled second stage, Douglas's workhorse S-IVB third stage with its instrument unit brain - as much a spacecraft as a rocket. From the decision to build it to the operation of its engines' valves and pumps, this lavishly illustrated and deeply informative book offers a deeper appreciation of the amazing Saturn V.
An expanded special new edition of the Apollo 13 Manual chronicles the complex technical challenges involved in returning the crippled spacecraft safely to Earth, the worldwide reaction and the lessons learned.
The International Space Station - or ISS - is a permanently manned 400-ton orbiting complex for six astronauts. It comprises modules built in the US, Russia, Europe and Japan with external robotic equipment built by Canada, all these having been launched by their host countries. In addition, Europe and Japan provide logistics modules and Russia provides cargo freighters. Assembled in a series of flights between 1998 and 2011, the ISS will be complete by mid-2011. In that period there will have been more than 60 manned and 50 unmanned flights to the ISS and the station has been permanently manned since 2000, just two years after assembly began. It is expected to continue in operation for the next 10 years during which period it will be continuously manned by a crew of six people. The purpose of the station is to carry out research into a wide range of scientific activities involving medicines, human physiology, biology, botany, physics and chemistry. Observations of the earth and of the universe are carried out by the station and later in the decade it will support activities associated with the first human expeditions to the asteroids and possibly back to the lunar surface.
The Saturn I and IB series of rockets fulfilled plans developed in the late 1950s to build a rocket which could triple the existing thrust levels of US rockets and equal the lifting capacity of the Soviet Union, launching satellites and spacecraft weighing more than 10 tonnes into Earth orbit and do it by the early 1960s. These rockets emerged from the work carried out by former V-2 technical director Wernher von Braun, working at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville, Alabama. Three times more powerful than anything launched by America to that date, with a cluster of eight rocket motors for the first stage, the first Saturn I flew on October 27, 1961, and propelled America into the heavy-lift business. It was the Saturn I, and its successor the Saturn IB, with a more powerful second stage, that did all the preparatory work getting NASA ready to put men on the Moon. Between 1961 and 1975, the 19 flights of the Saturn I and IB achieved several historic “firsts”, launching the world’s first high-energy liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen upper stages into orbit in 1964, the first unmanned test of suborbital and orbital Apollo spacecraft in 1966, the first unmanned test of the Lunar Module in 1968, the first manned Apollo spacecraft Apollo 7 also in 1968, all three Skylab flights in 1973 and the last Apollo spacecraft flown in support of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975.
The International Space Station (ISS) is a permanently manned earth-orbiting complex where astronauts carry out research into a wide range of scientific activities. It comprises modules built in the USA, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada. Author David Baker examines how the ISS was built, the logistics modules and freighters operated by its user nations, how the ISS works as an integrated facility, life on board, what the ISS does, the research carried out and who benefits.
The Soyuz spacecraft played a major role in Russia's plans for a manned landing on the Moon and several test models were flown at the height of the 'space race'. Originally designed for circumlunar flight, Soyuz has been the mainstay of Russia's space program.
Full coverage of the design, engineering, development and flight operations of NASA's Mercury spacecraft, which in addition to several unmanned tests supported two piloted ballistic sub-orbital flights in 1961 and four piloted orbital flights between 1962 and 1963.The Mercury programme bridged the gap between the hypersonic X-15 and the two-man Gemini spacecraft, which in turn led to the Apollo spacecraft. MERCURY - AMERICA'S FIRST PILOTED SPACECRAFT 1958-1963 completes the Haynes Workshop manual series of US and Russian piloted space vehicles and serves as a precursor to a possible Hynes Workshop Manual on the NASA Orion deep-space exploration vehicle scheduled to fly in 2018 on the Space Launch System, the world's biggest rocket.The emphasis in the book will on describing the design, engineering and technology of the Mercury spacecraft rather than on the missions, which are comprehensively covered in several previously published books. In this way the Workshop Manual brand line is maintained as a reference to the way machines are built and operated.
Looks at the operations of the International Space Station from the perspective of the Houston flight control team, under the leadership of NASA's flight directors, who authored the book. The book provides insight into the vast amount of time and energy that these teams devote to the development, planning and integration of a mission before it is executed. The passion and attention to detail of the flight control team members, who are always ready to step up when things do not go well, is a hallmark of NASA human spaceflight operations. With tremendous support from the ISS program office and engineering community, the flight control team has made the International Space Station and the programs before it a success.
The world-famous Apollo 13 mission and dramatic explosion on the service module, captured in technical detail like you’ve never seen before. On April 13, 1970, NASA’s Apollo 13 suffered a near-catastrophic explosion in space. The planned lunar landing that day was promptly called off, and a new challenge prioritized: get the spacecraft safely back to Earth. Written by David Baker, an original member of NASA’s Apollo 13 Houston Mission Control team, Apollo 13 Owners’ Workshop Manual offers unprecedented, meticulous coverage of the Apollo 13 mission. Beginning with an overview of the era’s equipment and technology, Baker focuses primarily on the planning, goals, and execution of the mission itself, including an hour-by-hour timeline of the crew’s near-disaster in space. Additionally, his thorough analysis of the post-flight investigation and lurking design problems with the spacecraft offer the rare viewpoint of a true Apollo 13 insider. Not only does Baker present and analyze the mission itself, but he also celebrates NASA’s legacy in the wake of the event with the redesign of sections of the Apollo spacecraft and the changes to the way later missions were organized, beginning with Apollo 14. In typical fully illustrated Haynes Manual detail, Apollo 13 Owners’ Workshop Manual presents the fascinating circumstances behind a team who recovered their spacecraft just hours before hurtling back into the earth’s atmosphere. But more than that, the book is a brand-new insight into the remarkable story of how clever, improvised engineering, remarkable teamwork, and sheer will to succeed averted a major catastrophe in space.
In 1954, three years before the launch of Sputnik 1, the world’s first satellite, top-secret discussions were held in the United States to plan the development of military spy satellites, designed to obtain detailed photography of the Soviet Union’s military strength, and its potential for waging nuclear war. This book takes a detailed look at the programmes which resulted from the clandestine decision in the US to build highly secret spy satellites in parallel with civilian space plans, revealing for the first time previously classified details of the design and layout of photographic reconnaissance (spy) satellites including the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL), America’s planned military space station. The author has obtained declassified material, lifting the veil of secrecy covering exactly what spy satellites are, how they operate, what their limitations are and what they look like. This book focuses on the development of the spy satellites themselves and on the political arena in which their successes, and failures, were played out, providing a fascinating insight into a secretive world.
Written and illustrated by Chris Gall, Go for the Moon! captures the fascinating detail and inspiring adventure of the moon landing. It is a captivating celebration of one of humankind's greatest technical achievements and most extraordinary feats of exploration. The Apollo 11 astronauts have prepared carefully for their attempt to be the first men to land on the moon. The young narrator of this book has prepared carefully, too: he explains the design of the spacecraft, the flight from the earth to the moon, and the drama of touching down--while shadowing the astronaut's voyage with one of his own.
