‘Thrilling … High-definition history: tight, thrilling and beautifully researched’ SUNDAY TIMES\n‘This book is a triumph’ DAN SNOW\n9.07 a.m., April 12, 1961. A top-secret rocket site in the USSR. A young Russian sits inside a tiny capsule on top of the Soviet Union’s most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile – originally designed to carry a nuclear warhead – and blasts into the skies. His name is Yuri Gagarin and he is about to make history.\nTravelling at almost 18,000 miles per hour – ten times faster than a rifle bullet – Gagarin circles the globe in just 106 minutes. While his launch begins in total secrecy, within hours of his landing he has become a world celebrity – the first human to leave the planet.\nBeyond tells the thrilling story behind that epic flight on its sixtieth anniversary. It happened at the height of the Cold War as the US and USSR confronted each other across an Iron Curtain. Both superpowers took enormous risks to get a man into space first – the Americans in the full glare of the media, the Soviets under deep cover. Both trained their teams of astronauts to the edges of the endurable. In the end the race between them would come down to the wire.\nDrawing on extensive original research and the vivid testimonies of eyewitnesses, many of whom have never spoken before, Stephen Walker unpacks secrets that were hidden for decades and takes the reader into the drama – featuring the scientists, engineers and political leaders on both sides, and above all the American astronauts and their Soviet rivals battling for supremacy in the heavens.

Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product.\nA single source of essential information for aerospace engineers\nThis fully revised resource presents theories and practices from more than 50 specialists in the many sub-disciplines of aeronautical and astronautical engineering―all under one cover. The Standard Handbook for Aerospace Engineers, Second Edition, contains complete details on classic designs as well as the latest techniques, materials, and processes used in aviation, defense, and space systems. You will get insightful, practical coverage of the gamut of aerospace engineering technologies along with hundreds of informative diagrams, charts, and graphs.\nStandard Handbook for Aerospace Engineers, Second Edition covers:\n•Futures of aerospace\n•Aircraft systems\n•Aerodynamics, aeroelasticity, and acoustics\n•Aircraft performance\n•Aircraft flight mechanics, stability, and control \n•Avionics and air traffic management systems\n•Aeronautical design\n•Spacecraft design\n•Astrodynamics\n•Rockets and launch vehicles\n•Earth’s environment and space\n•Attitude dynamics and control

Back on the earth after three spaceflights, Chris Hadfield's captivating memoir An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth reveals extraordinary stories from his life as an astronaut, and shows how to make the impossible a reality. This edition contains a new afterword.\\nColonel Chris Hadfield has spent decades training as an astronaut and has logged nearly 4,000 hours in space. During this time he has broken into a Space Station with a Swiss army knife, disposed of a live snake while piloting a plane, been temporarily blinded while clinging to the exterior of an orbiting spacecraft, and become a YouTube sensation with his performance of David Bowie's 'Space Oddity' in space. The secret to Chris Hadfield's success – and survival – is an unconventional philosophy he learned at NASA: prepare for the worst – and enjoy every moment of it.\\nIn his book, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, Chris Hadfield takes readers deep into his years of training and space exploration to show how to make the impossible possible. Through eye-opening, entertaining stories filled with the adrenaline of launch, the mesmerizing wonder of spacewalks and the measured, calm responses mandated by crises, he explains how conventional wisdom can get in the way of achievement – and happiness. His own extraordinary education in space has taught him some counter-intuitive lessons: don't visualize success, do care what others think, and always sweat the small stuff.\\nYou might never be able to build a robot, pilot a spacecraft, make a music video or perform basic surgery in zero gravity like Colonel Hadfield. But his vivid and refreshing insights in this book will teach you how to think like an astronaut, and will change, completely, the way you view life on Earth – especially your own.

On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two unknown brothers from Ohio changed history. But it would take the world some time to believe what had happened: the age of flight had begun, with the first heavier-than-air, powered machine carrying a pilot. Who were these men and how was it that they achieved what they did? David McCullough, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, tells the surprising, profoundly human story of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Far more than a couple of unschooled Dayton bicycle mechanics who happened to hit on success, they were men of exceptional courage and determination, and of far-ranging intellectual interests and ceaseless curiosity, much of which they attributed to their upbringing. In this thrilling book, McCullough draws on the immense riches of the Wright Papers, including private diaries, notebooks, scrapbooks, and more than a thousand letters from private family correspondence to tell the human side of the Wright Brothers' story, including the little-known contributions of their sister, Katharine, without whom things might well have gone differently for them.

"Tom Wolfe at his very best" (The New York Times Book Review), The Right Stuff is the basis for the 1983 Oscar Award-winning film of the same name and the 8-part Disney+ TV mini-series.From "America's nerviest journalist" (Newsweek)--a breath-taking epic, a magnificent adventure story, and an investigation into the true heroism and courage of the first Americans to conquer space. "Millions of words have poured forth about man's trip to the moon, but until now few people have had a sense of the most engrossing side of the adventure; namely, what went on in the minds of the astronauts themselves - in space, on the moon, and even during certain odysseys on earth. It is this, the inner life of the astronauts, that Tom Wolfe describes with his almost uncanny empathetic powers, that made The Right Stuff a classic.

The #1 New York Times bestseller\n-WINNER OF ANISFIELD-WOLF AWARD FOR NONFICTION-WINNER BLACK CAUCUS OF AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION BEST NONFICTION BOOK-WINNER NAACP IMAGE AWARD BEST NONFICTION BOOK-WINNER NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES, ENGINEERING AND MEDICINE COMMUNICATION AWARD\nThe phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA at the leading edge of the feminist and civil rights movement, whose calculations helped fuel some of America’s greatest achievements in space—a powerful, revelatory contribution that is as essential to our understanding of race, discrimination, and achievement in modern America as Between the World and Me and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The basis for the smash Academy Award-nominated film starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner.\nBefore John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. \nAmong these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching math in the South’s segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America’s aeronautics industry was in dire need of anyone who had the right stuff. Suddenly, these overlooked math whizzes had a shot at jobs worthy of their skills, and they answered Uncle Sam’s call, moving to Hampton, Virginia and the fascinating, high-energy world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. \nEven as Virginia’s Jim Crow laws required them to be segregated from their white counterparts, the women of Langley’s all-black “West Computing” group helped America achieve one of the things it desired most: a decisive victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and complete domination of the heavens. \nStarting in World War II and moving through to the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement and the Space Race, Hidden Figures follows the interwoven accounts of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Christine Darden, four African American women who participated in some of NASA’s greatest successes. It chronicles their careers over nearly three decades they faced challenges, forged alliances and used their intellect to change their own lives, and their country’s future.

In the vein of Randall Munroe's What If? meets Brian Green's Elegant Universe, a senior writer from Space.com leads readers on a wild ride of exploration into the final frontier, investigating what's really "out there."We've all asked ourselves the question. It's impossible to look up at the stars and NOT think about it: Are we alone in the universe? Books, movies and television shows proliferate that attempt to answer this question and explore it. In OUT THERE Space.com senior writer Dr. Michael Wall treats that question as merely the beginning, touching off a wild ride of exploration into the final frontier. He considers, for instance, the myriad of questions that would arise once we do discover life beyond Earth (an eventuality which, top NASA officials told Wall, is only drawing closer). \nWhat would the first aliens we meet look like? \nWould they be little green men or mere microbes? \nWould they be found on a planet in our own solar system or orbiting a star far, far away? \nWould they intend to harm us, and if so, how might they do it? \nAnd might they already have visited?\n\n OUT THERE is arranged in a simple question-and-answer format. The answers are delivered in Dr. Wall's informal but informative style, which mixes in a healthy dose of humor and pop culture to make big ideas easier to swallow. Dr. Wall covers questions far beyond alien life, venturing into astronomy, physics, and the practical realities of what long-term life might be like for we mere humans in outer space, such as the idea of lunar colonies, and even economic implications. Dr. Wall also shares the insights of some of the leading lights in space exploration today, and shows how the next space age might be brighter than ever.

Attention: This book requires no knowledge of math! During my career as an aerospace engineer, I have come to find that math is only one small prerequisite for being successful in the field - what’s most important is passion. Aerospace engineering builds on several basic disciplines including mathematics, physics, chemistry, mechanics, electronics and communications. Even just a rudimentary understanding of these fields enables a more rapid and deep understanding of the advancements in aerospace engineering - whether you be an interested spectator or professional in the field, this is your textbook. Our real limits are far beyond our current perception and we will challenge them for many centuries to come. In aviation, we continuously seek to fly higher and faster - this book‘s purpose is to give you an idea of the engineering principles which enable powered flights, space exploration and much more. Although humans have envied the flight of birds for many thousands of years, the engineering of powered flight is just over 100 years old, having started with the 12-second, 120-foot flight of the Wright brothers in 1903.Over the years, aerospace progress has demanded the further development of existing technical fields or creation of new ones building on the above basic disciplines. You might be the one to design, engineer and manage the next generation of aircraft, spacecraft, or beyond! However, all of this will require understanding the big picture and having an understanding of where we came from. For that, you first need to understand, how a bird flies, or a signal is sent to space. It’s an exciting time to be alive—enjoy! - Ed Gibson

Provides a broad and accessible introduction to the field of aerospace engineering, ideal for semester-long courses   Aerospace engineering, the field of engineering focused on the development of aircraft and spacecraft, is taught at universities in both dedicated aerospace engineering programs as well as in wider mechanical engineering curriculums around the world-yet accessible introductory textbooks covering all essential areas of the subject are rare. Filling this significant gap in the market, Introduction to Aerospace Engineering: Basic Principles of Flight provides beginning students with a strong foundational knowledge of the key concepts they will further explore as they advance through their studies.   Designed to align with the curriculum of a single-semester course, this comprehensive textbook offers a student-friendly presentation that combines the theoretical and practical aspects of aerospace engineering. Clear and concise chapters cover the laws of aerodynamics, pressure, and atmospheric modeling, aircraft configurations, the forces of flight, stability and control, rockets, propulsion, and more. Detailed illustrations, well-defined equations, end-of-chapter summaries, and ample review questions throughout the text ensure students understand the core topics of aerodynamics, propulsion, flight mechanics, and aircraft performance. Drawn from the author's thirty years' experience teaching the subject to countless numbers of university students, this much-needed textbook:   Explains basic vocabulary and fundamental aerodynamic concepts   Describes aircraft configurations, low-speed aerofoils, high-lift devices, and rockets   Covers essential topics including thrust, propulsion, performance, maneuvers, and stability and control  Introduces each topic in a concise and straightforward manner as students are guided through progressively more advanced material  Includes access to companion website containing a solutions manual and lecture slides for instructors  Introduction to Aerospace Engineering: Basic Principles of Flight is the perfect "one stop" textbook for instructors, undergraduates, and graduate students in Introduction to Aerospace Engineering or Introduction to Flight courses in Aerospace Engineering or Mechanical Engineering programs.