An infamous espionage case took the country by storm in 1994 and destroyed the lives and careers of many people. It has finally been put to rest after 25 years. The main accused, Nambi Narayanan, was vindicated and in compliance with the Supreme Court’s order, received Rs50 lakh compensation from the Kerala Government. He was also awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2019. But was all this too late? And what about the others who were accused? Has their honour been restored? Do we know the full story yet? Ex-IB officer K. V. Thomas reveals the long saga of interrogations, investigations and legal battles. Full of original disclosures, the book exposes deep secrets and closed-door conversations of India’s most sensational spy case.

A top scientist is falsely accused of selling space technology secrets. A police inspector's misadventure with a Maldivian woman results in a fabricated espionage case. A faction within a political party capitalises on the case to bring down a government. An intelligence agency obligingly plays into the hands of vested interests to slow down India's space programme. And a complex investigation finally proves the allegations untrue. In this riveting book, Isro scientist S Nambi Narayanan - who was falsely accused of espionage in ISRO spy case of the 1990s - and senior journalist Arun Ram meticulously unpick the ISRO spy case, revisit old material and discover new details to expose the international plot that delayed India's development of a cryogenic engine by at least a decade. It took four years for the CBI to exonerate Nambi, but his fight for justice to ensure action against the officers who faked the case and tortured him in custody continues. This book is as much a history of the early days of India's ambitious space programme as it is a record of one of the most sensational cases that enthralled the nation long before the era of online updates and 24-hour news cycles.

In spite of the Challenger and Columbia disasters, the US Space Shuttle, which entered service in 1981, remains the most successful spacecraft ever developed. Conceived and designed as a reusable spacecraft to provide cheap access to low Earth orbit, and to supersede expendable launch vehicles, serving as the National Space Transportation System, it now coexists with a new range of commercial rockets. David Harland’s definitive work on the Space Shuttle explains the scientific contribution the Space Shuttle has made to the international space programme, detailing missions to Mir, Hubble and more recently its role in the assembly of the International Space Station. This substantial revision to existing chapters and extension of ‘The Space Shuttle’, following the loss of Columbia, will include a comprehensive account of the run-up to resumption of operations and conclude with a chapter beyond the Shuttle, looking at possible future concepts for a partly or totally reusable space vehicle which are being considered to replace the Shuttle.

The book follows a unified approach to present the basic principles of rocket propulsion in concise and lucid form. This textbook comprises of ten chapters ranging from brief introduction and elements of rocket propulsion, aerothermodynamics to solid, liquid and hybrid propellant rocket engines with chapter on electrical propulsion. Worked out examples are also provided at the end of chapter for understanding uncertainty analysis. This book is designed and developed as an introductory text on the fundamental aspects of rocket propulsion for both undergraduate and graduate students. It is also aimed towards practicing engineers in the field of space engineering. This comprehensive guide also provides adequate problems for audience to understand intricate aspects of rocket propulsion enabling them to design and develop rocket engines for peaceful purposes.

Presents the Space Shuttle as a utilitarian craft, focusing on its origins, operations, and importance to many scientific missions.