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“Insightful, instructive, and definitely worth the
read.”—Greg Andres, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society
of Canada“As someone who has been teaching a course on space
exploration for many years and has visited most of NASA’s space
centers, I have found plenty of new and valuable material in To a
Distant Day. . . . I recommend the book to all who wish to know
more about the conditions, people, and discoveries between 1890 and
1960 that led to the space age.”—Pangratios Papacosta, Physics
Today Although the dream of flying is as old as the human
imagination, the notion of rocketing into space may have originated
with Chinese gunpowder experiments during the Middle Ages. Rockets
as both weapons and entertainment are examined in this engaging
history of how human beings acquired the ability to catapult
themselves into space. Chris Gainor’s irresistible narrative
introduces us to pioneers such as Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert
Goddard, and Hermann Oberth, who pointed the way to the cosmos by
generating the earliest wave of international enthusiasm for space
exploration. It shows us German engineer Wernher von Braun creating
the V-2, the first large rocket, which, though opening the door to
space, failed utterly as the “wonder weapon” it was meant to
be. From there Gainor follows the space race to the Soviet Union
and the United States, giving us a close look at the competitive
hysteria that led to Sputnik, satellites, space probes,
and—finally—human flight into space in 1961. As much a story of
cultural ambition and personal destiny as of scientific progress
and technological history, To a Distant Day offers a complete and
thoroughly compelling account of humanity’s determined
efforts—sometimes poignant, sometimes amazing, sometimes mad—to
leave the earth behind.
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