Dick, Steven J. (Editor)
On 29 July 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which became operational on 1 October of that year. Over the next 50 years, NASA achieved a set of spectacular feats, ranging from advancing the well-established field of aeronautics to pioneering the new fields of Earth and space science and human spaceflight. In the midst of the geopolitical context of the Cold War, 12 Americans walked on the Moon, arriving in peace "for all mankind." Humans saw their home planet from a new perspective, with unforgettable Apollo images of Earthrise and the "Blue Marble," as well as the "pale blue dot" from the edge of the solar system. A flotilla of spacecraft has studied Earth, while other spacecraft have probed the depths of the solar system and the universe beyond. In the 1980s, the evolution of aeronautics gave us the first winged human spacecraft, the Space Shuttle, and the International Space Station stands as a symbol of human cooperation in space as well as a possible way station to the stars. With the Apollo fire and two Space Shuttle accidents, NASA has also seen the depths of tragedy. In this volume, a wide array of scholars turn a critical eye toward NASA's first 50 years, probing an institution widely seen as the premier agency for exploration in the world, carrying on a long tradition of exploration by the United States and the human species in general. Fifty years after its founding, NASA finds itself at a crossroads that historical perspectives can only help to illuminate. (Publisher)
...MoreDescription Contributors: Michael D. Griffin, Howard E. McCurdy, Robert R. MacGregor, W. Henry Lambright, J. D. Hunley, John Krige, Linda Billings, Anthony M. Springer, Robert G. Ferguson, Richard P. Hallion, John M. Logsdon, Stephen B. Johnson, Michael J. Neufeld, Maura Phillips Mackowski, Laurence Bergreen, David DeVorkin, Joseph N. Tatarewicz, Michael Meltzer, Andrew J. Butrica, Edward S. Goldstein, James R. Fleming, and Erik Conway.
Review Sturdevant, Rick W. (2012) Review of "NASA's first 50 years: Historical perspectives". Air Power History (pp. 46-46).
Chapter Neufeld, Michael J. (2010) The “Von Braun Paradigm” and NASA's long-term planning for human spaceflight. In: NASA's first 50 years: Historical perspectives (p. 325).
Chapter Mackowski, Maura Phillips (2010) Life sciences and human spaceflight. In: NASA's first 50 years: Historical perspectives (pp. 349-373).
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Melvin Croft;
John Youskauskas;
Don Thomas;
(2019)
Come Fly with Us: NASA's Payload Specialist Program
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Conway, Erik M.;
(2015)
Exploration and Engineering: The Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Quest for Mars
(/isis/citation/CBB001422612/)
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Vertesi, Janet Amelia;
(2015)
Seeing Like a Rover: How Robots, Teams, and Images Craft Knowledge of Mars
(/isis/citation/CBB001510006/)
Book
Kathryn D. Sullivan;
(2019)
Handprints on Hubble: An Astronaut's Story of Invention
(/isis/citation/CBB905524834/)
Article
Norman F. Ness;
(1996)
Pioneering the Swinging 1960s into the 1970s and 1980s
(/isis/citation/CBB670109850/)
Chapter
Hersch, Matthew H.;
(2009)
Checklist: The Secret Life of Apollo's “Fourth Crewmember”
(/isis/citation/CBB001032629/)
Chapter
Collis, Christy;
(2009)
Geostationary Orbit: A Critical Legal Geography of Space's Most Valuable Real Estate
(/isis/citation/CBB001032631/)
Chapter
Gorman, Alice;
(2009)
Archaeology of Space Exploration
(/isis/citation/CBB001032636/)
Chapter
Neal, Valerie;
(2013)
Bringing Spaceflight Down to Earth: Astronauts and The IMAX Experience®
(/isis/citation/CBB001201399/)
Book
Garber, Stephen J.;
(2002)
Looking Backward, Looking Forward: Forty Years of U. S. Human Spaceflight
(/isis/citation/CBB000301883/)
Book
Compton, William David;
(2010)
Where No Man Has Gone Before: A History of NASA's Apollo Lunar Expeditions
(/isis/citation/CBB001032667/)
Article
Hersch, Matthew H.;
(2011)
Return of the Lost Spaceman: America's Astronauts in Popular Culture, 1959--2006
(/isis/citation/CBB001032371/)
Thesis
Karash, Yuri Y.;
(1997)
Soviet/Russian-American Space Cooperation
(/isis/citation/CBB001560904/)
Book
Hitt, David;
Garriott, Owen K.;
Kerwin, Joe;
(2008)
Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story
(/isis/citation/CBB000951866/)
Thesis
Psenka, Carolyn Elyse;
(2008)
A Monumental Task: Translating Complex Knowledge in NASA's Human Space Flight Network
(/isis/citation/CBB001561250/)
Article
Rossi, Umberto;
(2009)
A Little Something about Dead Astronauts
(/isis/citation/CBB001031075/)
Article
Andrews, James T.;
(2009)
Storming the Stratosphere: Space Exploration, Soviet Culture, and the Arts from Lenin to Khrushchev's Times
(/isis/citation/CBB001030521/)
Book
Ciancone, Michael L.;
(2010)
History of Rocketry and Astronautics: Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth History Symposium of the International Academy of Astronautics: Houston, Texas, U.S.A., 2002
(/isis/citation/CBB001232444/)
Book
Carmichael, Scott W.;
(2010)
Moon Men Return: USS Hornet and the Recovery of the Apollo 11 Astronauts
(/isis/citation/CBB001032623/)
Book
Pyne, Stephen J.;
(2010)
Voyager: Seeking Newer Worlds in the Third Great Age of Discovery
(/isis/citation/CBB001020919/)
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