The Complete Idiot's Guide to NASA

by Michael Benson, Thomas D. Jones, Michael Benson

Book Overview

Coverage includes: the history of NASA, from its origins in the l950s as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Projects Mercury and Gemini; the history and timeline, triumphs and tragedies of the famed Apollo missions, including the historic Apollo 11, which put the first men on the Moon in l969; NASA's contributions to our everyday life, most notably on robotics and the creation of cutting-edge research on aerodynamics and chapters on important NASA...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0028642821
• ISBN13: 9780028642826
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam
• Length: 335 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Source for the Space Race

What NASA has done for us is amazing and here is the book for the person just getting into this topic or who was bored learning about it in school and needs to get the more interesting and fun version of it. It is an excellent reference tool and a good read straight through. And any agency that can put a man on the Moon has to be applauded!

Great beginner's guide to the study of space exploration

I had the pleasure of reading Dr. Jones book after meeting him last year. He is from my hometown of Baltimore. Hardcore space junkies will probably know most of the historical material in the book already. However, like any book written by an astronaut, what makes his book enjoyable are his own personal experiences. I didn't know that Tabasco sauce was such an important part of a Shuttle Astronaut's diet! Kids with an interest in space exploration will find the book fun to read and it seems like that is the target audience. My son liked it.

Grasping NASA in Everyday Terms

"Both Pioneers 10 and 11 contain a gold plaque with etchings showing a man, a woman, and the location of our Sun..."That's one of the dozens of factoids that appear in "Dr. Jones's Corner," one of several categories of sidebar in this general book about the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, intended to inform and entertain those of us who are not rocket scientists --- although co-author Jones is, in fact, a real-life astronaut.Anyone with a broad interest in the U.S. space program and in the space agency will want "The Complete Idiot's Guide to NASA" handy on the bookshelf. Yes, believe it or not, an "Idiot's Guide" can be used as a reference source and does come with an index. Want to know how Werner von Braun helped develop the ballistic missile? Want to remember who were the seven astronauts in the Mercury program? In fact, would you like to become an astronaut yourself? It's all in this volume.Like many Americans, I have a general interest in knowing a little more about NASA and about space, but I'm not a technology geek and I'm not sufficiently interested to purchase, for example, a well-known 1,000-page guide to the space shuttle. This moderately sized and priced volume is the right book about NASA and space for someone like me with a general interest. In a blurb on the cover, astronaut Story Musgrave, M. D. tells us that this book is "big and beautiful...[and]...has a monumental scope." That's a big of an exaggeration. Like I said, it's moderately sized and priced. But it's attractive, well illustrated, and well designed. Hey, it's a good book for the general reader about NASA and it appears to have the facts right. That, plus the entertainment value, seems enough for four stars if you ask me.