From 1893-1895 George Griffith was the most famous science fiction writer in England. His books entranced the readers of the 19th century with tales of Martians, submarines, immortality, rogue comets and even spaceships whizzing around the solar system. He invented the Countdown in 1897 and his son would become the co-inventor of the jet engine. Griffith's name became synonymous with high adventure and so in the Spring of 1894 he was recruited to follow in the mythical footsteps of Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg. In just 65 days Griffith travelled through 24 time zones and established a new world record. Now for the first time in over 100 years his story can be retold along with a lengthy biography of his many literary achievements by noted Space writer and editor, Robert Godwin. It includes a special Introduction by John Griffith, grandson of George Griffith.

This title includes 100+ posters, bonus disc & 2 pre-painted models. Enclosed in this gift set are 100+ panoramic colour posters complete with extensive descriptions of each location. See remarkable new views that provide a depth of field previously unseen on the moon. Over 2500 video screen captures have been merged to show the historic exploration of the lunar surface in an entirely new way. Size of each poster: 500x165mm. Bonus Disc: "New Horizons: Panoramic Photography on the Moon".

NASA's ambitious but essential Gemini Program was culminated in November 1966 with the launch of Gemini 12 from Kennedy Space enter's Launch Complex 19. This tenth manned Gemini mission was the final opportunity to develop and practice many new techniques that were integral to the upcoming Apollo program. With the successful conclusion of the Gemini 12 mission, veteran astronaut Command Pilot James Lovell had set another new record with a total of 18 days in space, and Pilot Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin held the EVA duration record with an umbilical EVA at the Agena work station of 2 hours and 9 minutes. In all, three EVA (extra-vehicular activity) sessions were performed during the mission. Going into the Gemini 12 mission, many questions of EVA procedure were still unresolved. In the past, astronauts had expended too much energy simply staying in position. In an effort to better develop techniques and train astronauts, for the first time, underwater simulation was incorporated into EVA training. Using a submerged mock-up of the Gemini-Agena spacecraft, EVA training proceeded almost to the eve of launch.;Training in the neutral-buoyancy underwater simulation allowed the astronauts to practice the entire EVA procedure in a single session - just as they would be required to do in space. This was a major advance over simulated weightlessness in aircraft parabolic flights, which provided only 30 seconds of weightlessness at a stretch. Gemini 12 successfully executed a fuelless station-keeping exercise for 4 hours and 20 minutes with the use of a dacron tether between the Gemini and Agena vehicles. Once the tether had been pulled taut, the reaction control systems for both vehicles were turned off, and the slight difference in the Earth's gravitational effect on the two space vehicles was sufficient to keep the tether taut, so the two spacecraft remained at a constant separation, without the use of any reaction control fuel. Despite mission changes brought on by a radar lock-on failure and by a malfunction of the Agena Primary Propulsion System (PPS), the Gemini 12 mission was considered to be a major success, continuing the success story of the entire Gemini program.;Apollo could take man to the Moon only after Gemini had introduced him to the space environment and taught him how to perform there. CD included.

In the 25 years that America has been flying Space Shuttles, they have done more to further mankind's space effort than anyone could have predicted. The accomplishments and discoveries of the Space Shuttles are colorfully presented in this Pocket Space Guide, #10 in the series, which chronicles the events and machines that have made humans at home in the Earth's orbit.

At 7:15 a.m. on October 3, 1962, Project Mercury Astronaut Walter M. Schirra, Jr., in his Sigma 7 spacecraft, was launched into space and orbited the Earth six times, completing another step in the grand U.S. program to send a man to the Moon and then return him safely to Earth. Because of the brief durations of the previous Mercury flights, the astronauts spent the majority of their flight time in getting to orbit and preparing to leave orbit. Schirra's six-orbit mission lasted more than nine hours, which for the first time allowed an astronaut to experience an extended period of weightlessness. In addition, the time available allowed Schirra to engage in orbital manoeuvring, exercising the various manual and automatic control modes, and to spend time on photography and scientific experiments. After his return to the United States, Schirra described his Sigma 7 mission as "a text book flight." A compilation of inputs from engineering, operations and medical personnel had been integrated into a single flight plan, which Schirra then carried out exactly as he had trained.;The unqualified success of this flight paved the way for the planned upcoming one-day mission, an important milestone on the journey to the Moon. In this book the Mission Press Kit and press releases are combined with the major post-mission reports to provide a comprehensive picture of the flight from the planning stages through to its successful completion. Sigma 7 - The NASA Mission Reports is taken directly from the NASA archives. It presents the details of the Mercury-Atlas 8 mission, the overall Project Mercury game plan, astronaut Walter M. Schirra, Jr., and all of the many professional support people and facilities that went into making the mission a complete success. Includes a CD-ROM featuring: An exclusive interview with Mercury Astronaut Walter M. Schirra, Jr; The NASA movie - Flight of Sigma 7; NASA movie - Unmanned Mercury Missions; NASA Document (pdf) - Space Medicine in Project Mercury.

By July of 1968, the British blues band The Yardbirds had played their last concert, leaving newcomer guitarist, Jimmy Page, with a manager, some contracts and a name. Page and manager Peter Grant determined to create a new band -- a phoenix of gargantuan proportions -- Led Zeppelin. From their first concerts in Scandinavia to their final sad separation, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, John Bonham and manager Peter Grant proved themselves to be consummate professionals, especially in the way they presented themselves to the media. For twelve years the music tabloids and mainstream press followed the bands every move, extracting interviews at any opportunity. Thousands of fans around the world kept abreast of their movements through the press, especially in the United Kingdom where radio was still a government monopoly. Noted Led Zeppelin expert Robert Godwin has collected and reviewed over a thousand articles from around the globe. Reports of the bands activities from Tokyo to New York and from Sydney to London are compiled and collated in chronological order.

The dazzling vistas that the Hubble Space Telescope has recorded since its launch in 1990 are presented in this book, along with explanations of what exactly Hubble has seen during it's years in orbit. This Pocket Space Guide, #7 in the series, tells the complete Hubble story--from the program's shaky start to the extraordinary success that followed, inspiring bigger and better successors in the years to follow. Line drawings of its hardware offer a supplementary understanding of Hubble's technological development.

Kate Bush exploded onto the world stage in 1978 with her smash hit single Wuthering Heights. Music lovers around the world were enamoured with her unique talent, charm and beauty. The accompanying album The Kick Inside was lauded by critics on both sides of the Atlantic. From that moment until this, with the release of her new album Aerial, she has defined her own unique style and broken new ground with her vision of contemporary music. During an absence from recording of over a decade Kate Bushs influence prevails in the recorded works of female superstars around the world, whether it be in the music of Sarah McLachlan and Tori Amos or the choreography of Madonna and Britney Spears. Kate Bush is an originator who has either directly or indirectly inspired millions. The Illustrated Collectors Guide to Kate Bush is a comprehensive register of the recorded works of this remarkable chanteuse, from 1978 to the present day. It includes over 600 listings covering albums, compact discs, 45s, CD singles, laserdiscs, videos, interview discs, promotional records and CDs, bootlegs, books, sheet music, fanzines, guest appearances as well as a record of her television appearances. Fully illustrated throughout in colour with over 400 pictures of Kate Bush related material, it is an essential reference source for collectors. The book is compiled by Robert Godwin, author of the critically acclaimed Collectors Guides to Led Zeppelin and Hawkwind.

If you always thought that it was Giovanni Schiaparelli who first coined the phrase 'Canali' pertaining to the straight lines he appeared to observe on Mars you'd be wrong. In 1858, an astronomer working at the Vatican observatory named father Pietro Angelo Secchi took it upon himself to create his own drawings of Mars. The red planet was now nearing a close approach to earth and the powerful Vatican telescope was capable of resolving detail previously invisible to most astronomers. Secchi thought he saw a series of straight lines on the Martian surface so he made an innocuous notation in his notes. His sketches and articles were published in 1859 in which he referred several times to 'Canale Atlantico' or 'Canale Ceruleo'. His regrettable choice of words would not have an impact for another eight years. This volume tells not only of people and places that have influenced mankind's relationship with the enigmatic red planet, but it also shows you the colour drawings that Secchi made, which were provided to us directly by the Vatican itself. Along with many other interesting stories, drawings and photographs this book will be a prize for both the novice or ardent student of Mars.

CD-ROM and Book. Lost in the glare of Apollo's success, the Gemini program is often forgotten. Without the ten successful manned Gemini missions NASA could not have accomplished Kennedy's seemingly impossible goal of landing a man on the moon in the 1960s. Gemini 6 the fifth manned flight of America's two-man spacecraft. Aboard were Commander Wally Schirra and rookie pilot Tom Stafford. Their original mission flight plan was to attempt the first ever docking and rendezvous in space, an essential step if the pilots flying Apollo would ever be able to meet up in orbit around the moon. The Soviet Union had claimed the first space rendezvous but many felt that unless the pilot was in control and able to manoeuvre around the accompanying vehicle it could not truly be called a rendezvous. On October 25th 1965 the target vehicle, known as Atlas/Agenda failed to make orbit and so the crew of Gemini 6 were suddenly presented with a totally revised and audacious flight plan. The long duration Gemini 7 mission was already scheduled for launch and so the crew of Gemini 6 were told that NASA would attempt a double manned mission and rendezvous.;This was undoubtedly a risky proposition which would stretch the NASA infra-structure to its limits. On December 15th 1965 ace pilot Schirra and rendezvous maestro Stafford closed to within a meter of Gemini 7 and America was one step closer to the moon. Includes: Windows CD-ROM featuring: an exclusive recent interview with Commander Wally Schirra; all of the still photo images taken during the mission; two 28 minutes - 'Gemini Science' and 'Gemini 7 and 6' plus the complete 16 mm film from the mission.

On December 21st 1968, NASA sent three men to orbit the moon in the Apollo 8 spacecraft. This book and CD-ROM pack contains important documents from the historic odyssey, including the press kit, pre-mission reports and objectives, the supplemental technical report and the post-flight summary.

For as long as mankind has possessed a sense of wonder, astronomy has been practised in one form or another. It can be thought of as having graduated to the status of a true science at the point in history when it became forever separated from astrology. Clearly they were not of the same mould; astronomy was hard to do; astrology was merely hard to swallow. The next significant change came in the early 20th century. Men and women of science felt it was no longer sufficient to simply catalogue the visual characteristics of the stars and other heavenly bodies; the desire to understand their physical makeup, behaviour and creation gave us the study of astrophysics. As the name suggests, this is the physics of astronomical bodies and the space they inhabit. During the second half of the 20th century interest turned also to the other eight planets of our solar system, spawning several new disciplines relating to Planetology, the formation of the solar system, and the possibility of past or present extraterrestrial life. Every decade of the last century brought ever more numerous and fascinating discoveries. It was not until 1930 that Pluto, the ninth planet, was discovered.;Only as late as 1978 was it discovered that Pluto possessed a moon. And now, in late 2005, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has given astronomers evidence that Pluto may have not one, but three moons. In recent decades much interest has also been given to the far reaches of the universe -- far stars; other galaxies, some old, some still forming; and even the earliest detectable galaxies of the universe, at the very limits of our ability to probe. Each field of space study requires its own special tools and its own expertise. The many programs that come loosely under the headings of astronomy and space exploration are as varied and rewarding as the fascinating discoveries that they have made. To the uninformed, the exploration of deep space may seem esoteric and unexciting, but in truth the wonder and the beauty of deep space outshine almost anything that Earth and man can offer. The time when people can go and explore deep space in person is still well into the future. Until then, we shall continue to do as we have done for the past 40 years, sending unmanned spacecraft and satellites as our proxies and ambassadors to the universe.;This book examines deep space exploration missions, past, present and future, and their results.

CD-ROM and Book. The Red Planet has been a beacon to every race of mankind since the dawn of history. Today Mars stands as a symbol of the high frontier the next logical step in our exploration of the universe around us. In 1964 the United States of America launched Mariner 4 towards Mars in the hope that a handful of pictures returned by the spacecraft might answer some age-old questions. Was there an ancient Martian civilisation? Would there be any signs of life? So began the first step in a close examination of our neighbouring planet. Between Mariner 4 and Mars Global Surveyor in 1988 the United States has sent a fleet of robots to Mars with wildly varying degrees of success. Thanks to these versatile probes we now know almost as much about Mars on a global scale as we do about our own Earth. In this book the triumphs and tribulations of the American Mars programme is gathered together in one place. Press Kits and Mission Reports from every Mars mission are collected together for the first time. Reading these documents presented here in chronological order gives a fascinating insight into how our understanding of the Red Planet has grown over the past four decades.;These robot voyages are the advance guard, scouting out the path for the day when men will launch a manned mission to Mars.

CD-ROM and Book. When the crew of Apollo 11 returned to earth in July 1969 they brought with them a wealth of new information about the moon. Now astronauts Charles (Pete) Conrad, Alan Bean and Richard Gordon would return to the moon and build on that knowledge. The real test for the crew of Apollo 12 was not to see if they could get to the moon, but to see if they could get to an exact place on the moon. Their target was in an area known as the Ocean of Storms. On 14 November 1969 the crew of Apollo 12 blasted off to their place in history. Not only would Conrad and Bean become the third and fourth men to walk on the moon but they would land the lunar module Intrepid within 600 feet of their designated target. Waiting for them was the unmanned space probe Surveyor 3 which had soft-landed in April 1967. The flight of Apollo 12, which began almost catastrophically when the huge Saturn V was struck by lightning just moments after lift off, went on to yield an enormous amount of valuable data collected during over seven and a half hours on the lunar surface. On their return home the crew of Apollo 12 became the first humans to witness an eclipse of the Sun by the Earth.