Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11, by Brian Floca
“An extraordinary delight for a reader of any age.” —The New York Times Book Review Simply told, grandly shown, and now with eight additional pages of brand-new art and more in-depth information about the historic moon landing, here is the flight of Apollo 11. Here for a new generation of readers and explorers are the steady astronauts clicking themselves into gloves and helmets, strapping themselves into sideways seats. Here are their great machines in all their detail and monumentality, the ROAR of rockets, and the silence of the Moon. Here is a story of adventure and discovery—a story of leaving and returning during the summer of 1969, and a story of home, seen whole, from far away.”
Who Was Neil Armstrong?, by Roberta Edwards
“On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon and, to an audience of over 450 million people, proclaimed his step a "giant leap for mankind." This Eagle Scout built his own model planes as a little boy and then grew up to be a test pilot for experimental aircraft before becoming an astronaut. Over 80 black-and-white illustrations bring Armstrong's story to life.”
My First Book of Planets: All About the Solar System for Kids, by Bruce Betts PhD
“Blast off on an exploration of our solar system?a fun space book for kids 3 to 5. Get even the smallest astronomer excited for the big universe of space, from the bright and burning sun to our own blue Earth to ice-capped Pluto and every planet in between. With this book, kids will explore the entire solar system through incredible photos and fascinating facts on what makes each planet so special?like their size, distance from the sun, what the surface is like, how many moons they have, and more! This planets for kids book includes: Big, beautiful images?Vibrant photos will take kids deep into space and onto each planet?no telescope required. Astronomy for kids?Learn all about the eight planets in our solar system, plus dwarf planets Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake. Fun space facts?Did you know the bubbles in soda are the same gas that’s on Venus? Out of this world facts will keep kids glued to the page and excited to explore the sky.”
Moon! Earth’s Best Friend, by Stacy McAnulty
“From writer Stacy McAnulty and illustrator Stevie Lewis, Moon! Earth's Best Friend is a light-hearted nonfiction picture book about the formation and history of the moon?told from the perspective of the moon itself. Meet Moon! She's more than just a rock?she’s Earth’s rock, her best friend she can always count on. Moon never turns her back on her friend (literally: she's always facing Earth with the same side!). These two will stick together forever. With characteristic humor and charm, Stacy McAnulty channels the voice of Moon in this next celestial "autobiography" in the Our Universe series. Rich with kid-friendly facts and beautifully brought to life by Stevie Lewis, this is an equally charming and irresistible companion to Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years and Sun! One in a Billion.
The Faces, Err Phases, of the Moon – Astronomy Book for Kids, by Baby Professor
“How can there be one moon and many “faces”? One night it look full, the next it'll wane and the next it'll change yet again. This astronomy book for kids will explain the different phases of the moon and how each affects life on Earth. Astronomy can be your child’s new favorite subject through this book. Buy a copy today!”
Who Was Sally Ride?, by Megan Stine
“In 1978, Sally Ride, a PhD candidate at Stanford University, responded to a newspaper ad to join the U.S. astronaut program. She was accepted and became the first American woman astronaut to fly in space! Among her other accomplishments, she played tennis like a professional, was an astrophysicist who helped develop a robotic arm for space shuttles, and later, through Sally Ride Science, worked to make science cool and accessible for girls. Sally Ride, who died on July 23, 2012, will continue to inspire young children.”
The Hubble Space Telescope: Our Eye on the Universe, by Terence Dickinson and Tracy Read
“A beautifully illustrated, accessible beginner's guide to the Hubble Space Telescope. Acclaimed astronomer Terence Dickinson and his longtime editor Tracy C. Read team up to explore the starry treasures in our galaxy and beyond as revealed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Since Galileo pointed his telescope at the starry night in 1609 and discovered that the hazy patch above us was not a cloud but a "river" of uncountable stars -- the Milky Way, our home galaxy -- humans have been improving on ways to understand the cosmos. We've devised ever more powerful telescopes and placed them on mountaintops, far from the bright lights of cities. But the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 was the first time we'd sent a telescope into space, beyond the distorting effects caused by looking through the Earth's atmosphere. Orbiting roughly 350 miles above Earth and circling the planet more than 5,000 times a year, Hubble has made over 1.3 million observations, revealing the vast scope of the expanding universe beyond our solar system. In The Hubble Space Telescope: Our Eye on the Universe, young readers find out how this groundbreaking telescope gathers imagery and transmits it to Earth. This book shares what Hubble has taught us about the universe and explains its top discoveries.”
Space Dictionary for Kids: The Everything Guide for Kids Who Love Space, by Amy Anderson and Brian Anderson
“Packed with hundreds of illustrated definitions about astronomy and space, Space Dictionary for Kids is certain to spark any kid's enthusiasm for the solar system and galaxy. Explore cosmology, stars and galaxies, the solar system, space exploration, and exoplanets and astrobiology. Hop on an astronomy timeline to learn the story of how primitive ancient beliefs evolved over centuries to become a high-technology science. Crack up over the humorous sidebars that expand on the topic of space with examples, explanations, diagrams, quizzes, and even short activities to enhance understanding. Use the references and further reading recommendations at the end to help find more information about astronomy, perfect for assignments or just wanted to know more about the coolest topic in the galaxy! Divided into sections for quick access to the easy-to-understand definitions and amazing full-color illustrations, Space Dictionary for Kids is a must-have for any kid's home library!”
The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System, by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen
“To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Scholastic is re-releasing the ten original Magic School Bus titles in paperback. With updated scientific information, the bestselling science series ever is back! The fieldtrip to the planetarium is foiled when the museum turns out to be closed, but Ms. Frizzle saves the day. The Magic School Bus turns into a spaceship and takes the class on a trip zooming through the atmosphere, to the Moon, and beyond! With up-to-date facts about the solar system, revised for this edition.”
Space!: The Universe as You’ve Never Seen It Before (Knowledge Encyclopedias), by DK and the Smithsonian Institution
“The ultimate space encyclopedia for children is designed to blow your mind with incredible CGI images, from the deep darkness of black holes to the spectacular sparkle of supernovas. The many mysteries of the Universe are explored in breathtaking detail, including in-depth cross-sections and lifelike cutaways to showcase the planets, stars, moons, and space stations. Featuring absolutely everything under the Sun, this exciting visual reference guide is your guaranteed one-stop shop for space. Filled with the latest facts, infographics, and NASA images, Space! takes you on a journey that is truly out of this world before bringing you back seriously starry-eyed!”
The Planets: The Definitive Visual Guide to Our Solar System, by Robert Dinwiddie and Heather Couper
“Discover places where a day is longer than a year, where hailstones are made of diamonds, and where a mountain looms twice the size of Everest. These and more are all to be found in The Planets. The Sun’s gravity holds in thrall eight planets, each with an entourage of moons, as well as dwarf planets, asteroids, and comets. The Planets takes you on a dazzling visual tour. From the Solar System’s fiery heart, travel to rocky worlds such as tiny Mercury scorched by the Sun. Then witness Venus swathed in a sulfurous haze, and go to the outer reaches to visit planets such as gas giant Jupiter, which is 120 times the size of Earth. Using 3-D models and photography from NASA and the European Space Agency, The Planets describes each one, as well as the extraordinary endeavors of space exploration. Edited by space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock, this book is enthralling reading for everyone interested in astronomy and space exploration.”
Rocket Man: Robert H. Goddard and the Birth of the Space Age, by David A. Clary
“More famous in his day than Einstein or Edison, the troubled, solitary genius Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945) was the American father of rocketry and space flight, launching the world's first liquid-fuel rockets and the first powered vehicles to break the sound barrier. Supported by Charles Lindbergh and Harry Guggenheim, through fiery, often explosive, experiments at Roswell, New Mexico, he invented the methods that carried men to the moon. Today, no rocket or jet plane can fly without using his inventions.”
NOVA: The Planets DVD
“The four planets closest to the sun, called the rocky planets, were born from the same material in the same era. Only on Earth do we find the unique conditions for life as we know it. But why only here? Were Earth's neighbors always so extreme? And is there somewhere else in the solar system life might flourish?”
First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, by James R. Hansen
“When Apollo 11 touched down on the Moon’s surface in 1969, the first man on the Moon became a legend. In First Man, author James R. Hansen explores the life of Neil Armstrong. Based on over fifty hours of interviews with the intensely private Armstrong, who also gave Hansen exclusive access to private documents and family sources, this “magnificent panorama of the second half of the American twentieth century” is an unparalleled biography of an American icon.”
…the Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age, by Walter A. McDougall
“Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History - This highly acclaimed study approaches the space race as a problem in comparative public policy. Drawing on published literature, archival sources in both the United States and Europe, interviews with many of the key participants, and important declassified material, such as the National Security Council's first policy paper on space, McDougall examines U.S., European, and Soviet space programs and their politics. Opening with a short account of Nikolai Kibalchich, a late nineteenth-century Russian rocketry theoretician, McDougall argues that the Soviet Union made its way into space first because it was the world's first "technocracy"?which he defines as "the institutionalization of technological change for state purpose." He also explores the growth of a political economy of technology in both the Soviet Union and the United States.”
American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race, by Douglas Brinkley
“As the fiftieth anniversary of the first lunar landing approaches, the award winning historian and perennial New York Times bestselling author takes a fresh look at the space program, President John F. Kennedy’s inspiring challenge, and America’s race to the moon. “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.”—President John F. Kennedy On May 25, 1961, JFK made an astonishing announcement: his goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In this engrossing, fast-paced epic, Douglas Brinkley returns to the 1960s to recreate one of the most exciting and ambitious achievements in the history of humankind. American Moonshot brings together the extraordinary political, cultural, and scientific factors that fueled the birth and development of NASA and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects, which shot the United States to victory in the space race against the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.”
Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond, by Gene Kranz
“Gene Kranz was present at the creation of America's manned space program and was a key player in it for three decades. As a flight director in NASA's Mission Control, Kranz witnessed firsthand the making of history. He participated in the space program from the early days of the Mercury program to the last Apollo mission, and beyond. He endured the disastrous first years when rockets blew up and the United States seemed to fall further behind the Soviet Union in the space race. He helped to launch Alan Shepard and John Glenn, then assumed the flight director's role in the Gemini program, which he guided to fruition. With his teammates, he accepted the challenge to carry out President John F. Kennedy's commitment to land a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s. Kranz was flight director for both Apollo 11, the mission in which Neil Armstrong fulfilled President Kennedy's pledge, and Apollo 13. He headed the Tiger Team that had to figure out how to bring the three Apollo 13 astronauts safely back to Earth.”
Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon, by Robert Kurson
“NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The riveting inside story of three heroic astronauts who took on the challenge of mankind’s historic first mission to the Moon, from the bestselling author of Shadow Divers. By August 1968, the American space program was in danger of failing in its two most important objectives: to land a man on the Moon by President Kennedy’s end-of-decade deadline, and to triumph over the Soviets in space. With its back against the wall, NASA made an almost unimaginable leap: It would scrap its usual methodical approach and risk everything on a sudden launch, sending the first men in history to the Moon—in just four months.”
The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe
“Millions of words have poured forth about man's trip to the moon, but until now few people have had a sense of the most engrossing side of the adventure; namely, what went on in the minds of the astronauts themselves - in space, on the moon, and even during certain odysseys on earth. It is this, the inner life of the astronauts that Tom Wolfe describes with his almost uncanny empathetic powers that made The Right Stuff a classic.”
Inside NASA: High Technology and Organizational Change in the U.S. Space Program, by Professor Howard E. McCurdy
“Inside NASA explores how an agency praised for its planetary probes and expeditions to the moon became notorious for the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger and a series of other malfunctions. Using archival evidence as well as in-depth interviews with space agency officials, Howard McCurdy investigates the relationship between the performance of the American space program and NASA's organizational culture. He begins by identifying the beliefs, norms, and practices that guided NASA's early successes. Originally, the agency was dominated by the strong technical culture rooted in the research-and-development organizations from which NASA was formed. To launch the expeditions to the moon, McCurdy explains, this technical culture was linked to an organizational structure borrowed from the Air Force ballistic-missile program. Changes imposed to accomplish the lunar landing--along with the normal aging process and increased bureaucracy in the government as a whole--gradually eroded NASA's original culture and reduced its technical strength.”
The Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon, by Buzz Aldrin
“Forty years ago, Buzz Aldrin became the second human, minutes after Neil Armstrong, to set foot on a celestial body other than the Earth. The event remains one of mankind’s greatest achievements and was witnessed by the largest worldwide television audience in history. In the years since, millions more have had their Earth-centric perspective unalterably changed by the iconic photograph of Aldrin standing on the surface of the moon, the blackness of space behind him and his fellow explorer and the Eagle reflected in his visor. Describing the alien world he was walking upon, he uttered the words “magnificent desolation.” And as the astronauts later sat in the Eagle, waiting to begin their journey back home, knowing that they were doomed unless every system and part on board worked flawlessly, it was Aldrin who responded to Mission Control’s clearance to take off with the quip, “Roger. Understand. We’re number one on the runway.”
Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journeys – 50th Anniversary Edition, by Michael Collins
“The years that have passed since Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins piloted the Apollo 11 spacecraft to the moon in July 1969 have done nothing to alter the fundamental wonder of the event: man reaching the moon remains one of the great events?technical and spiritual?of our lifetime. In Carrying the Fire, Collins conveys, in a very personal way, the drama, beauty, and humor of that adventure. He also traces his development from his first flight experiences in the Air Force, through his days as a test pilot, to his Apollo 11 spacewalk, presenting an evocative picture of the joys of flight as well as a new perspective on time, light, and movement from someone who has seen the fragile earth from the other side of the moon.”
Teacher in Space: Christa McAuliffe and the Challenger Legacy, by Colin Burgess
“On January 28, 1986, NASA space shuttle orbiter Challenger lifted off into the clear blue skies over Florida on mission STS-51L, carrying a crew of seven, including teacher Christa McAuliffe. Just seventy-three seconds into the launch, a massive explosion tore Challenger apart. This newly revised edition of Teacher in Space tells the story of how McAuliffe graduated from her role as a much-loved high school teacher to occupying a seat on the veteran orbiter’s tenth and last flight into space.”
Apollo 13: Anniversary Edition, by Jeffrey Kluger and James Lovell
“In April 1970, during the glory days of the Apollo space program, NASA sent Navy Captain Jim Lovell and two other astronauts on America's fifth mission to the moon. Only fifty-five hours into the flight of Apollo 13, disaster struck: a mysterious explosion rocked the ship, and soon its oxygen and power began draining away. Written with all the color and drama of the best fiction, APOLLO 13 (previously published as Lost Moon) tells the full story of the moon shot that almost ended in catastrophe. Minutes after the explosion, the three astronauts are forced to abandon the main ship for the lunar module, a tiny craft designed to keep two men alive for just two days. As the hours tick away, the narrative shifts from the crippled spacecraft to Mission Control, from engineers searching desperately for a way to fix the ship to Lovell's wife and children praying for his safe return. The entire nation watches as one crisis after another is met and overcome. By the time the ship splashes down in the Pacific, we understand why the heroic effort to rescue Lovell and his crew is considered by many to be NASA's finest hour.”
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (DVD Box Set), Neil deGrasse Tyson
“COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey continues the exploration of the remarkable mysteries of the cosmos and our place within it. Hosted by renowned astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, this thrilling, 13-part adventure will transport you across the universe of space and time, bringing to life never-before-told stories of the heroic quest for knowledge and a deeper understanding of nature. With an updated Cosmic Calendar, dazzling visual effects, and the wondrous Ship of the Imagination, prepare to take an unforgettable journey to new worlds and across the universe for a vision of the cosmos on the grandest - and smallest - scale.”
