Books about Astronautics from Amazon.com

Blast off for educational fun! Beginning readers and budding astronomers are launched via Seussian sorcery on a wild trip to visit the nine planets in our solar system along with the Cat in the Hat, Thing One, Thing Two, and Dick and Sally..
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You live on Earth, so you already know a lot about it. But do you know about its place in out solar system? For instance, it's not the largest planet. If Jupiter were a hallow ball, 1,000 Earths would fit inside it. And did you know our planet Earth takes 365 days to go around the sun, while the planet Pluto takes 248 years?

This simple text by Franklyn M. Branely introduces the nine planets in our solar system and is complemented by Kevin O'Malley's full-color illustrations, which incorporate some of the newest space photographs available. How hot is it on Venus? Which planet takes longest to orbit the sun? Find out the answers in this updated version of this popular text. Kevin O'Malleys often humorous illustrations depict a group of children and an astronomer as they learn all about our solar system. Included are some of the newest space photographs available, as well as many hands-on activities.

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Blast-off! Up into the shy goes the space shuttle Into orbit, the astronauts get a taste of ready-to-eat food, experience zero gravity, go for space walks, and even fix a satellite It's fun to fly aboard the shuttle ..and then come back to earth.

‘A young girl declares her longing to ‘fly on the shuttle into outer space.’ The familiar acts of eating, sleeping, and working become intense and special as she and the rest of the crew go about their business. The illustrations positively glow in this simple, lyrical picture book that will have nearly everyone off and flying.’ —SLJ.

Notable Children's Book of 1988 (ALA)
1988 Fanfare Honor List (The Horn Book)
Best Illustrated Children's Books of 1988 (NYT)
Oustanding Science Trade Books for Children 1988 (NSTA/CBC).
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The #1 New York Times bestselling memoir that inspired the film October Sky,Rocket Boys is a uniquely American memoir—a powerful, luminous story of coming of age at the dawn of the 1960s, of a mother's love and a father's fears, of a group of young men who dreamed of launching rockets into outer space . . . and who made those dreams come true.

With the grace of a natural storyteller, NASA engineer Homer Hickam paints a warm, vivid portrait of the harsh West Virginia mining town of his youth, evoking a time of innocence and promise, when anything was possible, even in a company town that swallowed its men alive. A story of romance and loss, of growing up and getting out, Homer Hickam's lush, lyrical memoir is a chronicle of triumph—at once exquisitely written and marvelously entertaining.

Now with 8 pages of photographs.

A number-one New York Times bestseller in mass market, brought to the screen in the acclaimed film October Sky, Homer Hickam's memoir, nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, comes to trade paperback with an all-new photo insert.

One of the most beloved bestsellers in recent years, Rocket Boys is a uniquely American memoir. A powerful, luminous story of coming of age at the end of the 1950s, it is the story of a mother's love and a father's fears, of growing up and getting out. With the grace of a natural storyteller, Homer Hickam looks back after a distinguished NASA career to tell his own true story of growing up in a dying coal town and of how, against the odds, he made his dreams of launching rockets into outer space come true.

A story of romance and loss and a keen portrait of life at an extraordinary point in American history, Rocket Boys is a chronicle of triumph..
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NASA launches a yearlong celebration of its 50th anniversary in the fall of 2007, and Abrams is privileged to publish this visual history of its many achievements in manned and unmanned space travel. Written and edited by a team of experienced NASA staffers, and illustrated with many unpublished and rare photographs from the voluminous NASA archives scattered across the country, America in Space offers an unparalleled vision of half a century of exploration and discovery.

The story of America’s space age is told with more than 400 carefully selected images. The story begins in the 1950s with intrepid test pilots venturing ever faster and higher, and opens out into the now-legendary Mercury and Apollo missions of the 1960s that made astronauts into national heroes. The space shuttle era shows us what everyday space travel might look like, while grand vistas of the universe expand our sense of wonder. The large format of the book captures both the human drama and the vast scale of NASA’s projects. America in Space is a photographic record of the greatest adventure of our time..
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WHAT'S IN STICK AND RUDDER:

• The invisible secret of all heavier-than-air flight: the Angle of Attack. What it is, and why it can't be seen. How lift is made, and what the pilot has to do with it.
• Why airplanes stall How do you know you're about to stall?
• The landing approach. How the pilot's eye functions in judging the approach.
• The visual clues by which an experienced pilot unconsciously judges: how you can quickly learn to use them.
• "The Spot that does not move." This is the first statement of this phenomenon. A foolproof method of making a landing approach across pole lines and trees.
• The elevator and the throttle. One controls the speed, the other controls climb and descent. Which is which?
• The paradox of the glide. By pointing the nose down less steeply, you descend more steeply. By pointing the nose down more steeply, you can glide further.
• What's the rudder for? The rudder does NOT turn the airplane the way a boat's rudder turns the boat. Then what does it do?
• How a turn is flown. The role of ailerons, rudder, and elevator in making a turn.
• The landing--how it's made. The visual clues that tell you where the ground is.
• The "tail-dragger" landing gear and what's tricky about it. This is probably the only analysis of tail-draggers now available to those who want to fly one.
• The tricycle landing gear and what's so good about it. A strong advocacy of the tricycle gear written at a time when almost all civil airplanes were taildraggers.
• Why the airplane doesn't feel the wind.
• Why the airplane usually flies a little sidewise.
• Plus: a chapter on Air Accidents by Leighton Collins, founder and editor of AIR FACTS. His analyses of aviation's safety problems have deeply influenced pilots and aeronautical engineers and have contributed to the benign characteristics of today's airplane.

Stick and Rudder is the first exact analysis of the art of flying ever attempted. It has been continously in print for thirty-three years. It shows precisely what the pilot does when he flies, just how he does it, and why.

Because the basics are largely unchanging, the book therefore is applicable to large airplanes and small, old airplanes and new, and is of interest not only to the learner but also to the accomplished pilot and to the instructor himself.

When Stick and Rudder first came out, some of its contents were considered highly controversial. In recent years its formulations have become widely accepted. Pilots and flight instructors have found that the book works.

Today several excellent manuals offer the pilot accurate and valuable technical information. But Stick and Rudder remains the leading think-book on the art of flying. One thorough reading of it is the equivalent of many hours of practice..
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