A revised edition of the New York Times bestselling classic: the epic story of the golden years of American space exploration, told by the men who rode the rocketsOn October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, and the space race was born. Desperate to beat the Russians into space, NASA put together a crew of the nation’s most daring test pilots: the seven men who were to lead America to the moon. The first into space was Alan Shepard; the last wa...

New York Times bestseller for fans of First Man: A "breathtaking" insider history of NASA's space program—from astronauts Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton ( Entertainment Weekly).On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, and the space race was born. Desperate to beat the Russians into space, NASA put together a crew of the nation's most daring test pilots: the seven men who were to lead America to the moon. T...

An "exciting" minute-by-minute account of the Apollo 13 flight based on mission control transcripts from Houston ( The New York Times).On the evening of April 13, 1970, the three astronauts aboard Apollo 13 were just hours from the third lunar landing in history. But as they soared through space, two hundred thousand miles from Earth, an explosion badly damaged their spacecraft. With compromised engines and failing life-support systems, the crew was in inco...

This New York Times bestselling memoir of a veteran NASA flight director tells riveting stories from the early days of the Mercury program through Apollo 11 (the moon landing) and Apollo 13, for both of which Kranz was flight director.Gene Kranz was present at the creation of America’s manned space program and was a key player in it for three decades. As a flight director in NASA’s Mission Control, Kranz witnessed firsthand the making of history. He partic...

From the Apollo 17 commander and NASA veteran, "an exciting, insider's take on what it was like to become one of the first humans in space" ( Publishers Weekly).Eugene Cernan was a unique American who came of age as an astronaut during the most exciting and dangerous decade of space flight. His career spanned the entire Gemini and Apollo programs, from being the first person to spacewalk all the way around our world to the moment when he left man's last foo...

An International Bestseller“Absolutely essential reading for every LEGO fan.” —BlocksThe definitive history of LEGO, based on unprecedented access to the company’s archives and rare interviews with the founding family who still owns the company"This book tells the story of how my family built the LEGO brand." —Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, former President/CEO of the LEGO Group and 3rd generation ownerIt’s estimated that each year between eighty and ninety million...

With a focus of the Perseverance rover mission, here is the "Quintessential account of one of humanity’s most intriguing quests" (Pail Halpern, Medium), "A remarkable, timely, and up-to-date account of Mars exploration" (Leonard David, "Space Insider," Space.com).From The War of the Worlds to The Martian and to the amazing photographs sent back by the robotic rovers Curiosity and Opportunity, Mars has excited our imaginations as ...

On August 9, 1945, on the tiny island of Tinian in the South Pacific, a twenty-five-year-old American Army Air Corps major named Charles W. Sweeney climbed aboard a B-29 Superfortress in command of his first combat mission, one devised specifically to bring a long and terrible war to a necessary conclusion. In the belly of his bomber, Bock's Car, was a newly developed, fully armed weapon that had never been tested in a combat situation. It was a weapon capable of a level of destru...

This classic history of America's high-stakes quest to dominate the skies is "a gripping technothriller in which the technology is real" (New York Times Book Review).From the development of the U-2 to the Stealth fighter, Skunk Works is the true story of America's most secret and successful aerospace operation. As recounted by Ben Rich, the operation's brilliant boss for nearly two decades, the chronicle of Lockheed's legendary Skunk Works is a dr...

"Barbree offers an intimate portrait of a man grateful to have spent his life doing what he loved. . . . includes many never-before-seen photos." — BooklistHere for the first time is the definitive story of Neil Armstrong's life of flight he shared for five decades with a trusted friend—Jay Barbree.Working from fifty years of conversations he had with Neil, from notes, interviews, NASA spaceflight transcripts, and remembrances of t...

Kelly Johnson designed the Blackbird, a plane that flew non-stop from London to Los Angeles in less than four hours, outracing the sun and landing four hours before it had taken off, a remarkable feat--and this was more than 35 years ago. Johnson was the innovative genius behind Lockheed's "Skunk Works," and played a leading role in the development of more than forty aircraft, including some of America's most sophisticated planes. In 2003, as part of its commemoration of the 100th a...