NASA Products

NASA History

Since its inception in 1958, NASA has accomplished many great scientific and technological feats in air and space. NASA technology also has been adapted for many nonaerospace uses by the private sector. NASA remains a leading force in scientific research and in stimulating public interest in aerospace exploration, as well as science and technology in general. Perhaps more importantly, NASA exploration of space has taught us to view Earth, ourselves, and the universe in a new way. While the tremendous technical and scientific accomplishments of NASA demonstrate vividly that humans can achieve previously inconceivable feats, we also are humbled by the realization that Earth is just a tiny "blue marble" in the cosmos.

The following books, from the NASA History Division, are available while inventory last.

Rockets and People, Volume 1

Price: $27.50 (Price outside the U.S., Canada and Mexico is $27.50)
Order number: N20050010181

Much has been written in the West on the history of the Soviet space program but few Westerners have read direct first-hand accounts of the men and women who were behind the many Russian accomplishments in exploring space. The memoirs of Academician Boris Chertok, translated from the original Russian, fills that gap. Chertok began his career as an electrician in 1930 at an aviation factory near Moscow. Twenty-seven years later, he became deputy to the founding figure of the Soviet space program, the mysterious Chief Designer Sergey Korolev. Chertok s sixty-year-long career and the many successes and failures of the Soviet space program constitute the core of his memoirs, Rockets and People. These writings are spread over four volumes. This is volume I. Academician Chertok not only describes and remembers, but also elicits and extracts profound insights from an epic story about a society s quest to explore the cosmos. In Volume 1, Chertok describes his early years as an engineer and ends with the mission to Germany after the end of World War II when the Soviets captured Nazi missile technology and expertise. Volume 2 takes up the story with the development of the world s first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and ends with the launch of Sputnik and the early Moon probes. In Volume 3, Chertok recollects the great successes of the Soviet space program in the 1960s including the launch of the world s first space voyager Yuriy Gagarin as well as many events connected with the Cold War. Finally, in Volume 4, Chertok meditates at length on the massive Soviet lunar project designed to beat the Americans to the Moon in the 1960s, ending with his remembrances of the Energiya-Buran project.

Rockets and People: Volume II Creating a Rocket Industry

Price: $25 (Price outside the U.S., Canada and Mexico is $25)
Order number: PB2009115908

Much has been written in the West on the history of the Soviet space program, but few Westerners have read direct first-hand accounts of the men and women who were behind the many Russian accomplishments in exploring space. The memoir of academician Boris Chertok, translated from the original Russian, fills that gap. As with Volume I, Boris Chertok has extensively revised and expanded the material in Volume II from the original Russian text. In this volume, Chertok takes up his life story after his return from Germany to the Soviet Union in 1946. At the time, Stalin had ordered the foundation of the postwar missile program at an old artillery factory northeast of Moscow. Chertok gives an unprecedented view into the early days of the Soviet missile program. During this time, the new rocket institute known as NII-88 mastered V-2 technology and then quickly outgrew German technological influence by developing powerful new missiles such as the R-2, the R-5M, and eventually the majestic R-7, the worlds first intercontinental ballistic missile. With a keen talent for combining technical and human interests, Chertok writes of the origins and creation of the Baykonur Cosmodrome in a remote desert region of Kazakhstan.

Rockets and People: Volume III Hot Days of the Cold War

Price: $25 (Price outside the U.S., Canada and Mexico is $25)
Order number: N20090028008

This, the third volume of Boris Chertok's four-volume memoirs, continues the narrative arc which he began in the first volume. If the first volume covered his apprenticeship as an engineer and the second, the birth of the Soviet postwar missile program, in the third volume, we finally have what might be called the full bloom of the Soviet space program. Here, Chertok describes his impressions of the apex of Soviet achievements in space exploration, from the halcyon days of the launch of Yuri Gagarin into orbit in 1961 to the first piloted Soyuz mission in 1967. Chertok devotes a significant portion of the volume to the early years of Soviet human spaceflight. These include a chapter on the Vostok and Voskhod programs, which left an indelible mark on early years of the space race, a lengthy meditation on the origins and early missions of the Soyuz program, and a gripping account of one of the most tragic episodes of the Soviet space program: the flight and death of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov during the very first piloted Soyuz flight in 1967. Additional chapters cover robotic programs such as the Molniya communications satellite system, the Zenit spy satellite program, and the Luna series of probes that culminated in the world s first survivable landing of a probe on the surface of the Moon. Chertok also devotes several chapters to the development of early generations of Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and missile defense systems; his narrative here skillfully combines technical, political, personal, and strategic concerns, highlighting how these considerations were often difficult to separate into neat categories. In particular, we learn about the Soviet drive to develop a workable solid propellant ICBM and the subsequent arguments over the development of second general ICBMs in the late 1960s, a fight so acrimonious that contemporaries called it the little civil war. Chertok s chapter on the Cuban Missile Crisis provides a radically unique perspective on the crisis, from the point of view of those who would have been responsible for unleashing nuclear Armageddon in 1962 had Kennedy and Khrushchev not been able to agree on a stalemate. Two further chapters cover the untimely deaths of the most important luminaries of the era: Sergey Korolev and Yuriy Gagarin. Each of these chapters is a tour de force, as Chertok uses a vast array of published accounts to enrich his own personal recollections of the episodes. Finally, historians of Soviet science will find much of interest in the concluding chapter focused on the relationship between the space program and the Soviet Academy of Sciences. This chapter represents one of the most insightful descriptions of the formation of a Soviet aerospace elite during the post-World War II era.

Rockets and People: Volume IV The Moon Race

Price: $25 (Price outside the U.S., Canada and Mexico is $50)
Order number: PB2012104120

In this last volume of his four-volume set of memoirs, the famous Russian spacecraft designer Boris Chertok, who worked under the legendary Sergey Korolev, continues his fascinating narrative on the history of the Soviet space program, this time covering 1968 to 1974, the peak years of the Soviet human lunar program. Chertok devotes a significant portion of the volume to the origins and development of the N-1 rocket. One of the values of this volume is Chertok’s lengthy description of the origins of the Soviet space station program, which began with the Salyut space stations in the early 1970s and concluded with the multimodule Mir complex in the 1980s. Perhaps the most poignant chapters here are the ones on the tragic Soyuz-11 mission when cosmonauts Dobrovolskiy, Volkov, and Patsayev were killed on reentry. Chertok concludes the book with a lengthy description of the end of the N-1 program and the birth of the Energiya-Buran program under the leadership of Valentin Glushko. His account provides a fascinating inside look at the political, technological, and personal conflicts at a time when the Soviet space program was at its zenith.

Psychology of Space Exploration: Contemporary Research in Historical Perspective

Price: $25 (Price outside the U.S., Canada and Mexico is $50)
Order number: PB2012100567

Price: $20 - Paperback (Price outside the U.S., Canada and Mexico is $40)
Order number: PB2012100568

This book explores some of the contributions of psychology to yesterday’s great space race, today’s orbiter and International Space Station missions, and tomorrow’s journeys beyond Earth’s orbit. Early missions into space were typically brief, and crews were small, often drawn from a single nation. As an intensely competitive space race has given way to international cooperation over the decades, the challenges of communicating across cultural boundaries and dealing with interpersonal conflicts have become increasing important, requiring different coping skills and sensibilities from “the right stuff” of early astronauts.

When Biospheres Collide: A History of NASA-s Planetary Protection Programs

Price: $45 (Price outside the U.S., Canada and Mexico is $90)
Order number: PB2012100565

Price: $40 - Paperback (Price outside the U.S., Canada and Mexico is $80)
Order number: PB2012100566

Each time a space vehicle visits another world it runs the risk of forever changing that extraterrestrial environment. We are surrounded on Earth by a mélange of different microorganisms, and if some of these hitchhike onboard a space mission, they could contaminate and start colonies on a different planet. Such an occurrence would irrevocably alter the nature of that world, compromise all future scientific exploration on the body, and possibly damage any extant life on it. Any by inadvertently carrying exotic organisms back to Earth on our spacecraft, we risk the release of biohazardous materials into our own ecosystem.

This book presents the history of planetary protection by tracing the responses to the above concerns on NASA’s missions to the Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and many smaller bodies of our solar system.

Critical Issues in the History of Spaceflight

Price: $25 (Price outside the U.S., Canada and Mexico is $25)
Order number: N20060022843

In March 2005, the NASA History Division and the Division of Space History at the National Air and Space Museum brought together a distinguished group of scholars to consider the state of the discipline of space history. This volume is a collection of essays based on those deliberations. The meeting took place at a time of extraordinary transformation for NASA, stemming from the new Vision for Space Exploration announced by President George W. Bush in January 2004 to go to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The Vision, in turn, stemmed from a deep reevaluation of NASA's goals in the wake of the Space Shuttle Columbia accident and the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. The new goals were seen as initiating a "New Age of Exploration" and were placed in the context of the importance of exploration and discovery to the American experience.

With these developments as the broad background, the essays in this volume analyze some of the perennial issues in the history of the Space Age. What are the motivations for spaceflight? Is human spaceflight really necessary when robotic spacecraft are cheaper? Are reusable or expendable launch vehicles preferable for the variety of missions that space agencies undertake? Why has it taken so long to replace the Space Shuttle? Were the Shuttle accidents preventable, and what was the role of NASA's culture in their occurrence? The essays also explore NASA's interactions with the Department of Defense, the aerospace industry, and the international community. A final section examines the state of the art of the field of space history.

Mission to Jupiter: A History of the Galileo Project

Price: $25 (Price outside the U.S., Canada and Mexico is $25)
Order number: N20070013975

This book attempts to convey the creativity, leadership, and vision that were necessary for the Galileo mission's success. It is a book about dedicated people and their scientific and engineering achievements. The Galileo mission faced many significant problems. Some of the most brilliant accomplishments and work-arounds of the Galileo staff occurred precisely when these challenges arose. Throughout the mission, engineers and scientists found ways to keep the spacecraft operational from a distance of nearly half a billion miles, enabling one of the most impressive voyages of scientific discovery. The following chapters are included in the book and give a general overview of its contents: 1) The Importance of the Galileo Project; 2) From Conception to Congressional Approval; 3) The Struggle To Launch Galileo: Technical Difficulties and Political Opposition; 4) The Challenger Accident and Its Impact on the Galileo Mission; 5) The Galileo Spacecraft; 6) Galileo Deployment, the Inner Solar System Tour, and the Asteroid Belt; 7) The High-Gain Antenna Failure: A Disappointment and a Challenge; 8) Jupiter Approach and Arrival; 9) The Orbiter Tour; 10) Profiles of Selected People Important to the Mission; 11) Conclusion.

Read You Loud and Clear: The Story of NASA's Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network

Price: $20 (Price outside the U.S., Canada and Mexico is $20)
Order number: N20080020389

A historical account is provided of NASA's Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network (STDN), starting with its formation in the late 1950s to what it is today in the first decade of the 21st century. It traces the roots of the tracking network from its beginnings at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico to the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System space-based constellation of today. The story spans the early days of satellite tracking using the Minitrack Network, through the expansion of the Satellite Tracking and Data Acquisition Network and the Manned Space Flight Network, and finally, to the Space and Ground networks of today. These accounts tell how international goodwill and foreign cooperation were crucial to the operation of the network and why the space agency chose to build the STDN as it did.

Risk and Exploration: Earth, Sea and Stars

Price: $20 (Price outside the U.S., Canada and Mexico is $20)
Order number: N20050192497

The NASA History Division is pleased to present the record of a unique meeting on risk and exploration held under the auspices of the NASA Administrator, Sean O Keefe, at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, from September 26-29, 2004. The meeting was the brainchild of Keith Cowing and astronaut John Grunsfeld, NASA's chief scientist at the time. Its goals, stated in the letter of invitation published herein, were precipitated by the ongoing dialogue on risk and exploration in the wake of the Columbia Shuttle accident, the Hubble Space Telescope servicing question, and, in a broader sense, by the many NASA programs that inevitably involve a balance between risk and forward-looking exploration. The meeting, extraordinarily broad in scope and participant experience, offers insights on why we explore, how to balance risk and exploration, how different groups defi ne and perceive risk differently, and the importance of exploration to a creative society. At NASA Headquarters, Bob Jacobs, Trish Pengra, and Joanna Adamus of NASA Public Affairs led the meeting's implementation. The Naval Postgraduate School, commanded by Rear Admiral Patrick W. Dunne, provided a congenial venue. The meeting was broadcast on NASA TV, and thanks are due in this regard to Al Feinberg, Tony Stewart, Jim Taylor, and the planners collaborative: Mark Shaddock and Spotlight Productions, Donovan Gates of Donovan Gates Production, and Michael Ditertay and his staff on this 30-person television crew. Thanks to their efforts, a DVD record of the meeting has also been produced. Thanks are also due to the moderators: Miles O Brien of CNN, Chris McKay of NASA Ames, David Halpern of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and John Grunsfeld, NASA Headquarters. In order to maintain the informal flavor of the meetings, these proceedings are based on transcripts that have been lightly edited for grammar and punctuation. Most references to slides shown during the presentations have been deleted.

Shared Voyage: Learning and Unlearning from Remarkable Projects.

Price: $27.50 (Price outside the U.S., Canada and Mexico is $27.50)
Order number: N20050041734

Shared Voyage is about four remarkable projects: the Advanced Composition Explorer (NASA), the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (U.S. Air Force), the Pathfinder Solar-Powered Airplane (NASA), and the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (U.S.Air Force). Each project is presented as a case study comprised of stories collected from key members of the project teams. The stories found in the book are included with the purpose of providing an effective learning source for project management, encouraging the unlearning of outdated project management concepts, and enhancing awareness of the contexts surrounding different projects. Significantly different from project concepts found in most project management literature, Shared Voyage highlights concepts like a will to win, a results-oriented focus, and collaboration through trust. All four project teams researched in this study applied similar concepts; however, they applied them differently, tailoring them to fit the context of their own particular projects. It is clear that the one best way approach which is still the prevailing paradigm in project management literature should be replaced by a new paradigm: Even though general project management principles exist, their successful application depends on the specifics of the situation.

Societal Impact of Spaceflight

Price: $25 (Price outside the U.S., Canada and Mexico is $25)
Order number: PB2009110522

Since the dawn of space flight, advocates of a robust space effort have argued that human activity beyond Earth makes a significant difference in everyday life. Assertions abound about the “impact” of spaceflight on society and its relationship to the larger contours of human existence.
Fifty years after the Space Age began, it is time to examine the effects of spaceflight on society in a historically rigorous way. Has the Space Age indeed had a significant effect on society?  If so, what are those influences? What do we mean by an “impact” on society? And what parts of society? Conversely, has society had any effect on spaceflight? What would be different had there been no Space Age? The purpose of this volume is to examine these and related questions through scholarly research, making use especially of the tools of the historian and the broader social sciences and humanities. Herein a stellar array of scholars does just that, and arrives at sometimes surprising conclusions. 
Once contemplated, the subject is broad, rich and stimulating. Space flight has commercial and economic dimensions, as well as social, cultural, and ideological ramifications. It touches on enduring American values of pioneering, progress, enterprise, and rugged individualism. Worldwide it encompasses international cooperation and competition, and affects foreign policies, national security, and questions of the global environment. Viewing Earth from space, and space from the vicinity of Earth, alters world views, conceptions of self and others, and understandings of our place and purpose in the universe.

William H. Pickering : America's Deep Space Pioneer

Price: $25 (Price outside the U.S., Canada and Mexico is $25)
Order number: N20090001236

William Pickering first came to the attention of the world in January 1958 when the media triumphantly announced the successful launch of Explorer 1, the American response to the Soviet deployment a few months earlier of the first Earth-orbiting satellite Sputnik. Along with Wernher von Braun and James Van Allen, William Pickering shared the limelight and the accolades. In that instant of time the Space Age was born and with it the professional reputation of William H. Pickering. Under Pickering's leadership, JPL designed, built, and dispatched NASA's first Ranger spacecraft to take close-up pictures of the surface of the Moon. Building on its Ranger experience, JPL sent the first spacecraft to Venus and, as technology improved, to Mars. The scientific data returns from each successive mission greatly increased our understanding of the composition and dynamics of the solar system and its planets. When he retired as Director in 1976, Pickering had presided over NASA-JPL's missions to the Moon, Venus, and Mars and laid the basis for the fabulous Voyager Grand Tour of all the planets that would sound the praises of NASA-JPL for the next 25 years. Not all of the missions were successful, but Pickering accepted the responsibility that devolved from his position as Director, regardless of the outcome.

  X-15

Price: $45 (Price outside the U.S., Canada and Mexico is $45)
Order number: N20080008340

A history of the design and achievements of the high-speed, 1950s-era X-15 airplane is presented. The following chapters are included: A New Science; A Hypersonic Research Airplane; Conflict and Innovation; The Million-Horsepower Engine; High Range and Dry Lakes; Preparations; The Flight Program; and the Research Program. Selected biographies, flight logs and physical characteristics of the X-15 Airplane are included in the appendices.