This New Ocean; A History of Project Mercury. NASA SP-4201

Swenson, Loyd S., Jr.; Grimwood, James M., and Alexander, Charles C.

Edité par GPO, Washington, DC, 1966

A propos de cet article

xv, [1], 681, [3] pages. Illustrations. Fold-out charts. Footnotes. Sources and bibliography. Appendices. Index. Ex-library with usual library markings. Inside rear board scuffed. Pocket at rep. This is one of the NASA Historical Series. Boards somewhat worn, scuffed, and scratched. The authors argue that Project Mercury, from its inception in the fall of 1958, was preeminently an engineering, rather than a scientific, enterprise. Loyd Sylvan Swenson, Jr., Ph.D. 1932-2016 was Professor Emeritus, University of Houston, History Dept., author and NASA historian, A third generation Texan born in Waco, Loyd graduated Waco High School, Rice Institute (University), served as Lt. in the US Navy, and attained his Masters and Ph.D. from Claremont College. He taught his entire career at University of Houston, with an interim year at Harvard Project Physics, Boston. He co-authored the history of the Mercury and Apollo space programs and was considered an authority on the work of Albert Einstein, beginning with his research and publications on aether drift, and was a major contributor to the field of history of science and technology. Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. Its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely. Taken over from the U.S. Air Force by the newly created civilian space agency NASA, it conducted twenty unmanned developmental flights, and six successful flights by astronauts. The astronauts were collectively known as the "Mercury Seven", and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a "7" by its pilot. The Space Race began with the 1957 launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1. This came as a shock to the American public, and led to the creation of NASA to expedite existing U.S. space efforts, and place most of them under civilian control. After the successful launch of the Explorer 1 satellite in 1958, manned spaceflight became the next goal. On May 5, the U.S. launched its astronaut Alan Shepard on a suborbital flight. The U.S. reached its orbital goal on February 20, 1962, when John Glenn made three orbits around the Earth.

N° de réf. du vendeur 57061

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: This New Ocean; A History of Project Mercury. NASA SP-4201
• Éditeur: GPO, Washington, DC
• Date de parution: 1966
• Reliure: Hardcover
• État de l'article: Good
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Space
  • Aerospace
  • NASA
  • Astronauts