The Space Shuttle fleet set high marks of achievement and endurance through 30 years of missions, from its first, when STS-1 launched on April 12, 1981, to its last, when STS-135 landed on July 21, 2011. Beginning with the orbiter Columbia and continuing with Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s […]

Pursuit of Power: NASA’s Propulsion Systems Laboratory No. 1 and 2 The NASA Glenn History Office has undertaken the task of documenting many of its historic facilities. Histories of the Icing Research Tunnel, Plum Brook Reactor Facility, Rocket Engine Test Facility, and Altitude Wind Tunnel have been published. These books demonstrate the significance of each […]

Toward a History of the Space Shuttle: An Annotated Bibliography Part 2, 1992–2011 This annotated bibliography is a continuation of Toward a History of the Space Shuttle: An Annotated Bibliography, published by NASA in December 1992. (This publication is available here.) This volume includes key articles, books, hearings, and U.S. government publications published on the […]

Acknowledgment and thanks for permitting the use of the selection by H.A. Taine on “Modern Régime,” appearing in this volume, are hereby tendered to Madame Taine-Paul-Dubois, of Menthon St. Bernard, France, and Henry Holt & Co., of New York. Samuel Eliot, a historian and educator, was born in Boston in 1821, graduated at Harvard in […]

Acknowledgment and thanks for permitting the use of the following selections–“The Dawn of Civilisation,” “The Struggle of the Nations” and “The Passing of the Empires,” by Gaston Maspero–which appear in this volume, are hereby tendered to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, of London, England.Island in Gaston Camille Charles Maspero, born on June 23, 1846, […]

I have stated in the preface to the first Edition of this work, and in the “Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle,” that it was in consequence of a wish expressed by Captain Fitz Roy, of having some scientific person on board, accompanied by an offer from him of giving up part of his […]