NASA’s Space Shuttle era lasted from 1972 to 2011, a nearly forty-year window that coincided with Wayne Hale’s thirty-two-year career with NASA. During that time, he was a flight controller, flight director, and finally head of the Space Shuttle program. Hale held a role in every aspect of the Space Shuttle program’s operations, and collected here are a range of personal stories and reflections experienced during his tenure: from the lighthearted and comical account of the first and only i...

**Experience all 135 NASA space shuttle missions ever flown through the words of the astronauts themselves in this spectacularly illustrated volumeWith more than 600 photos from the NASA archives, this guide is perfect for fans of space history and spaceflightWinner of the American Astronautical Society's 2023 Eugene M. Emme Award and the International Academy of Astronautics' 2024 Social Sciences Book Award**NASA's space shuttle was the world's first reusable space...

Divined Intervention provides an innovative institutionalist account for why religion enables political activism in some settings, but not others. Christopher W. Hale argues that decentralized religious institutions facilitate grassroots collective action, and he uses a multimethod approach to test this explanation against several theoretical alternatives. Utilizing nationally representative Mexican survey data, the book’s statistical analyses demonstrate that decentraliz...

 Wings in Orbit is an authoritative documentation of the many accomplishments of the NASA Space Shuttle Program. Starting with a foreword written by astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen, this compelling book provides accurate, authentic and easily understood accounts from NASA’s best subject matter experts and external resources. The book captures the passion of those who devoted their energies to the Program’s success for more than three decades. It focuses on their s...

Voted the Best Space Book of 2018 by the Space HipstersThe dramatic inside story of the epic search and recovery operation after the Columbia space shuttle disaster.On February 1, 2003, Columbia disintegrated on reentry before the nation’s eyes, and all seven astronauts aboard were lost. Author Mike Leinbach, Launch Director of the space shuttle program at NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center was a key leader in the search and recov...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER. Astronaut Jim Lovell and coauthor Jeffrey Kluger’s harrowing account of the Apollo 13 disaster, a gripping true story of survival in space. Serving as the basis for Ron Howard’s blockbuster Apollo 13, the book reveals true details not shown in the movie. Thrilling and evocative, you feel as though you’re alongside Lovell in the lunar module.Written with all the color and drama of the best fiction, this work of historical nonfiction, Apollo ...

The riveting true story of the women who launched America into space.In the 1940s and 50s, when the newly minted Jet Propulsion Laboratory needed quick-thinking mathematicians to calculate velocities and plot trajectories, they didn't turn to male graduates. Rather, they recruited an elite group of young women who, with only pencil, paper, and mathematical prowess, transformed rocket design, helped bring about the first American satellites, and made the exploration...

**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The riveting inside story of three heroic astronauts who took on the challenge of mankind’s historic first mission to the Moon, from the bestselling author of Shadow Divers.“Robert Kurson tells the tale of Apollo 8 with novelistic detail and immediacy.”—Andy Weir, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Martian and Artemis**By August 1968, the American space program was in danger of failing in it...

On 12th April 1981 a revolutionary new spacecraft blasted off from Florida on her maiden flight. NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia was the most advanced flying machine ever built – the high watermark of post-war aviation development. A direct descendant of the record-breaking X-planes the likes of which Chuck Yeager had tested in the skies over the Mojave Desert, Columbia was a winged rocket plane, the size of an airliner, capable of flying to space and back before be...

"The authoritative masterpiece" (L. A. Times) on the Apollo space program and NASA's journey to the moonThis acclaimed portrait of heroism and ingenuity captures a watershed moment in human history. The astronauts themselves have called it the definitive account of their missions. On the night of July 20, 1969, our world changed forever when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. Based on in-depth interviews with twenty-three of the twenty-four...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NASA astronaut Mike Massimino shares incredible true stories from space—a rare, wonderful world where science meets the most thrilling adventure.“Mike is a spaceman through and through; he tells how hard work can take you out of this world.”—Bill Nye the Science GuyHave you ever wondered what it would be like to find yourself strapped to a giant rocket that’s about to go from zero to 17,500 miles per hou...

The long-awaited memoir of a trailblazer and role model who is telling her story for the first time.Eileen Collins was an aviation pioneer her entire career, from her crowning achievements as the first woman to command an American space mission as well as the first to pilot the space shuttle to her early years as one of the Air Force’s first female pilots. She was in the first class of women to earn pilot’s wings at Vance Air Force Base and was their first female in...