Space Shuttle Sts 1 - 5: The NASA Mission Reports: Apogee Books Space Series 16

Bys: Godwin, Robert and United States

CD-ROM and Book. The Space Shuttle is one of the great triumphs of modern technology. 122 feet long, capable of carrying 65,000 pounds of cargo and weighing in at 90 tonnes, Rockwell's Orbiter stands... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1896522696
• ISBN13: 9781896522692
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Collector's Guide Publishing
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.9" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

Apogee extends into the Shuttle-Era!!!

First off - I am a HUGE Apogee Books fan. Their niche on 'reprinting' press kits and other additional information about past space missions is great for tech-heads like myself. This book, "Space Shuttle: STS 1-5," was way overdue in my mind. Since the shuttle program called the first four missions 'test' flights, STS-5 was the first 'operational' flight. It is nice to see the progression from STS-1, where the system was tested in full for the very first time, to STS-5 when Columbia carried the first commercial payloads in its cargo bay. The book follows along the previously established Apogee Books format: Mission Press Kit, Preflight Operations Report, and Post Flight Operations Report. Only the STS-1 mission had a Technical Crew Debriefing printed, with transcripts of Mr. Young and Mr. Crippen critiquing the systems and procedures. A short chronology was included in the beginning to allow the reader to trace the shuttle timeline. There's an 8-page photo spread with color images of the shuttle and crews. Only downside to this book is the lack of a full-sized (?) color-photo of the mission patches. The only clue to the mission emblems is on the rear cover of the book. While the CDROM may include such features, it might have been nice to have a crew photo, mission emblem, and mission highlight photos in a standardized format within the photo spread pages. If you're interested in the shuttle and its first few missions, this is a must-get. But beware: some booksellers may give you a good price for a copy WITHOUT the CDROM. Apogee Books are awesome enough without the CD, but it doesn't hurt to have the extras!!

A Good Addition to the Series

This book, released to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the first space shuttle launch, contains a great deal of information about the development test flights of the space shuttle and its first operational (non-test) flight. While some readers may not find this book as interesting as the Apollo Mission Reports that have been already been released by Robert Godwin and Apogee books, it does contain a lot of information about the shuttle, its crews and its payloads. The book also contains a lot of nice figures and photographs, especially on the first flight, as well as a CD that contains 700 color photographs and 2 ½ hours of crew press conferences.The book opens with the Approach and Landing Tests (ALT), which were conducted approximately 4 ½ years before the first launch of the space shuttle, and provides some really interesting information about flying piggybacked airplanes. This was and is the method used to transport the space shuttle orbiter after launch. The next section of the book, which takes up about 40% of the book, covers the first flight of the shuttle. The rest of the book covers the three remaining test flights and the first operational shuttle flight, which had a crew of four.Even though I work at the Johnson Space Center and have participated in some form or another in many shuttle launches, I found many parts of the book very interesting and informative. For example, it was interesting to see that George Abbey, the future administrator of the Johnson Space Center, dominated the questioning of the first crew's debriefing. There is also a lot of material on the various abort scenarios, which are absent in the press kits, which are released for the current missions. For me, one of the most interesting parts of the book was the charts that showed the crewmember's mission schedules (time-lines). These same figures/charts are still used today.Some general information that might be useful.1) These reports are just scanned-in documents from previously released NASA press kits, etc., In order to preserve the spirit of the original reports, all typographical and grammatical errors have NOT been fixed.2) Proceeds from the book goes to "The Watch" an asteroid impact research project of the Space Frontier Foundation. In other words, Apogee Books is making very little off the sale of US government produced documents.

Space Shuttle STS Flights 1-5 The NASA Mission Reports

Having read several of Mr Godwin's other NASA mission reports on the space program, I find this is another welcome book to the collection. The fact that there is a lot of information in this one book is a great asset for a 'armchair astronaut' like myself. The CDROM in this book (like the others, check out Apollo 11 vol 1 & 2) is worth the cost of the book. They are also a great teaching aide. I highly recommend this book to Student, Teacher and Space enthusiast.

Space Shuttle STS Flights 1-5.

First of all let's take a look at the book without opening it. This time the background of the cover is light green. I like the choise of colour. It really looks good, framing the wonderful STS liftoff-photo as it does. Absolutely satisfying. And one more thing... How could we ever travel in space, if all the beautiful colours existing in our world would be an obstacle? Now let's open the book! Here you can find lots of interesting documents about the first five Shuttle flights from the NASA archives, such as: Press Kits, Pre Flight Mission Operation Reports, Post Flight Mission Operation Reports, Technical Crew Debriefings, Medical Reports, many small bw-pictures that makes me happy and eight pages of wonderful colour photos. I really like to read the Press Kits and the Technical Crew Debriefings. I allways start with them and then I go for the rest of the documents. The included CD-Rom features some highly enjoyable NASA-footage. The Post Flight Press Conference-videos are outstanding. And there is even another book about the Shuttle - NSTS 1988 News Reference Manual Volume 1 & 2. It's all there for you and me and anyone who takes an interest in space... Please carry on like this mr Godwin and I will go all the way to any star in universe as long as I've got your NASA MISSION REPORTS -series as my companion.

An incredible collection of NASA documents about STS 1-5

For the book "Space Shuttle - STS Flights 1-5" from the "The NASA Mission Reports"-series Editor Robert Godwin collected all interesting documents about the first five Shuttle flighst from the NASA archives, such as: Press Kits, Pre Flight Mission Operation Reports, Post Flight Mission Operation Reports, Technical Crew Debriefings But the best (as always) is the included CD-Rom that features some NASA-Footage (like the film "An incredible flying machine") and even another book about the STS ("Shuttle News Reference Volume 1 & 2"). The book is as good as its price and it counts 464 pages filled with NASA documents that really are a treasure for all interested in the first 5 Shuttle flights. But why does Mr. Godwin always pick such horrible colors (this time: light green) in the background of the cover? It looks really bad in the background of the nice STS Photo and it doesn't make any sense because it isn't any kind of color-coding for themes like STS, Mercury, Apollo or something like that. So why don't leave it simply black? Mr. Godwins book should be read as an extention of Dennis R. Jenkins remarkable book about the history of the Shuttle "Space Shuttle - The history of the national Space Transportation System" because Godwins book just focuses on documents about STS 1-5. Again, for all people that are interested in technical documents about the first five Shuttle flights this is absolutly the right choice and it shouldn't be missing on your book shelf.