In this fascinating and well-written text Peter Bond describes the development and evolution of space stations. Particular emphasis is placed on the International Space Station, beginning with the revolution that began in 1970, when Salyut 1, the world's first space station was sent into orbit by the Soviet Union. Defeated in the race to the Moon, the Soviets redirected their efforts towards the conquest of near-Earth space. In the next three decades, their increasingly large and sophisticated structures rewrote the history books as cosmonauts continued to push back all space endurance records. In clear and concise language the book explains how the human exploitation of low-Earth orbit is about to change.

In 1984 President Ronald Reagan gave NASA the go-ahead to build a Space Station. A generation later, the International Space Station is an established and highly successful research centre in Earth orbit. The history of this extraordinary project is a complex weave of powerful threads - political, diplomatic, financial and technological among them - but none is more fascinating than the story of its design. This book provides the first comprehensive account of the Station's conception, design, development and assembly in space. It begins in 1979 with early NASA concepts based on the use of the Space Shuttle and ends with the final Space Shuttle mission in 2011. As a highly accessible chronicle of a complex piece of design and engineering, it is a book that will appeal to readers far beyond the space field.

The sciences played a critical role in American foreign policy after World War II. From atomic energy and satellites to the green revolution, scientific advances were central to American diplomacy in the early Cold War, as the United States leveraged its scientific and technical pre-eminence to secure alliances and markets. The growth of applied research in the 1970s, exemplified by the biotech industry, led the United States to promote global intellectual property rights. Priorities shifted with the collapse of the Soviet Union, as attention turned to information technology and environmental sciences. Today, international relations take place within a scientific and technical framework, whether in the headlines on global warming and the war on terror or in the fine print of intellectual property rights. Science and American Foreign Relations since World War II provides the historical background necessary to understand the contemporary geopolitics of science.

A comprehensive, highly readable account of complex, technical, political and human endeavor and a worthy successor to Creating the International Space Station (Springer Praxis, January 2002) by David Harland and John Catchpole. This volume details for the first time the construction and occupation of the International Space Station from 2002 through to 2008, when it should reach American “Core Complete”.

“Manned Spaceflight Log” discusses over 40 recent spaceflights from September 2006 through September 2012, a time of great change in human spaceflight history. Following on from “Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006,” the authors continue the story until the end of September 2012, with new chapters detailing the development and accomplishments of human spaceflight, expanded tables and additional photographs, many in color, throughout. The book opens with a new foreword by Colonel Alfred M. Worden, USAF Retired, NASA Astronaut and CMP of Apollo 15, which reflects on the changing history of human spaceflight and the prospects for future operations. The first chapter explains how human spaceflight has approached the different challenges of exploring space and provided the hardware to meet those challenges. This chapter also describes the various attempts to reach orbital flight and the often confusing distinction between ballistic, sub-orbital, and so-called ‘astro-flights’ of the X-15 rocket research aircraft program. Chapter 2 recalls key historic moments and missions across five decades of human spaceflight. Each decade has provided useful lessons for the next and a foundation for future achievement. The new mission entries are collected in the third section in chronological order. A review of the next steps in human spaceflight, including plans to occupy the International Space Station well into the 2020s and the growth of the Chinese manned space program including a large space station and planned base on the Moon, is discussed in Chapter 4. The tables provide a complete up-to-date overview of human spaceflight operations and experience from April 1961 to September 2012 and a selected chronology of important milestones from those years. Completing the book is a comprehensive bibliography that lists all the major Springer-Praxis human spaceflight titles and other important works that provide the reader with a resource to continue further research.

* This is the only book that provides the full story of the role of women in space exploration. * Previously unpublished photographs of various aspects of training and participation in spaceflights are included. * Personal interviews with female cosmonauts and astronauts. * Traces the history of female aviation milestones from the early part of the 20th Century to the current space programme.

This flagship work charts a complete chronological log of orbital manned spaceflight. Included are the X-15 "astroflights" of the 1960s, and the two 1961 Mercury and Redstone missions which were non-orbital. There is an image depicting each manned spaceflight, and data boxes containing brief biographies of all the space travelers. The main text is a narrative of each mission, its highlights and accomplishments, including the strange facts and humorous stories connected to every mission. The resulting book is a handy reference to all manned spaceflights, the names of astronauts and cosmonauts who flew on each mission, their roles and accomplishments.