Advances over the past decades in space flight technology have allowed U.S., Russian, and other space programs to not only increase the frequency of manned space flights but also to increase the duration of these flights. As such, a large body of knowledge has been developed regarding the ways in which space flight affects the health of the personnel involved. Now, for the first time, this body of clinical knowledge on how to diagnose and treat conditions that either develop during a mission or because of a mission has been compiled by Drs. Michael R. Barratt and Sam L. Pool of the NASA/Johnson Space Center. This text is a must have for all those associated with aerospace medicine.

In its first edition, Principles of Clinical Medicine for Space Flight established itself as the authoritative reference on the contemporary knowledge base of space medicine and standards of care for space flyers. It received excellent notices and is used in the curricula of civilian and military training programs and used as a source of questions for the Aerospace Medicine Certifying Examination under the American Board of Preventive Medicine. In the intervening few years, the continuous manning of the International Space Station has both strengthened existing knowledge and uncovered new and significant phenomena related to the human in space. The Second Edition incorporates this information. Gaps in the first edition will be addressed with the addition new and revised chapters. This edition is extensively peer reviewed and represents the most up to date knowledge.