Spaceflight: A Concise History

The MIT Press Essential Knowledge

by Michael J. Neufeld

A concise history of spaceflight, from military rocketry through Sputnik, Apollo, robots in space, space culture, and human spaceflight today.

Spaceflight is one of the greatest human achievements of the twentieth century. The Soviets launched Sputnik, the first satellite, in 1957; less than twelve years later, the American Apollo astronauts landed on the Moon. In this volume of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Michael Neufeld offers a concise history of spaceflight, mapping the full spectrum of activities that humans have developed in space.

Neufeld explains that "the space program" should not be equated only with human spaceflight. Since the 1960s, unmanned military and commercial spacecraft have been orbiting near the Earth, and robotic deep-space explorers have sent back stunning images of faraway planets. Neufeld begins with the origins of space ideas and the discovery that rocketry could be used for spaceflight. He then discusses the Soviet-U.S. Cold War space race and reminds us that NASA resisted adding female astronauts even after the Soviets sent the first female cosmonaut into orbit. He analyzes the two rationales for the Apollo program: prestige and scientific discovery (this last something of an afterthought). He describes the internationalization and privatization of human spaceflight after the Cold War, the cultural influence of space science fiction, including Star Trek and Star Wars, space tourism for the ultra-rich, and the popular desire to go into space. Whether we become a multiplanet species, as some predict, or continue to call Earth home, this book offers a useful primer.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, Space

248 pages, Paperback

Published October 16, 2018

About the author

Michael J. Neufeld is Senior Curator in the Space History Department of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. He has appeared on History Channel, PBS, NPR, and BBC programs, and is the author of the award-winning The Rocket and the Reich, Von Braun, and other books.

Reviews

[الشناوي محمد جبر · Rating 2 out of 5]

كتاب عن رحلات الفضاء وبداياتها
بدأت رحلات الفضاء باختراع الصاروخ الحربي
تم تطويره للاغراض الفضائية
كل علم بدأ بخيال علمي
هذه الحقيقة أكثر ماتظهر في هذا الميدان
الكتاب جزء منه سياسي
لأنه يتحدث عن الصراع بين الاتحاد السوفيتي وأمريكا

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice short history of flight from an expert who wears his expert knowledge lightly. He places the history of space flight in its historical context from 19thC science fiction writers who inspired scientists who inspired more sci-fi writers in a virtuous wave, to the role of the Cold War and the competing Soviet and American space prorams. The early history of 20thC rocketry was filled with dreamers and enthuiasts before it got pulled into the military sphere before turning full circle with the reappearance of the dreamers and visonaries like Elon Musk in more recent times. The true mismatched nature of the Russian and American efforts is well covered, the Americans were always going to win out in the end with the richer and more open and competitive system. The political imperatives created by Sputnik and the "Missile Gap" which lead to the Moon Landings is well covered as well as the competive and bureacratic battles fought between the different US military agencies as they backed their own respective rocket programs. I was surprised the author did not mention the extraordinary and mind bending feat of Blue Horizon, and more spectacularly by Space X', vertical landing of rockets which has done so much to capture the public imagination about the magic of these gigantic thrilling machines. The chapter on the cultural significance of the Earth Rise and Blue Marble photos and the influence of a supposed global consciousness is discussed.

The detailed knowledge of the opposing sides strengths and capabilities in the Cold War lead to a more balanced and realistic - and thus more measured - calibration of foreign policy and military strategy.

[كابر · Rating 4 out of 5]

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اسم الكتاب: رحلات الفضاء (تاريخ موجز)
النوع: تاريخي ، علمي
الـكاتب: Michael J. Neufeld
عدد الصفحات: 166

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الملخص:

تاريخ موجز وجدول زمني لرحلات الفضاء من بدايتها إلى الوقت الحاضر

الحرب الباردة والمنافسة الفضائية السوفيتية والأمريكية ، في فصول موجزة مع لقطات من التفاصيل المثيرة للإهتمام لكيفية وصولنا إلى الفضاء ، ولماذا لا يزال يتعين علينا الذهاب إلى هناك

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الرأي الشخصـي:

تمنيت لو الكاتب أضاف فواصل ممتعة لأن حسيت الكتاب باهت ، في المقابل المحتوى دقيق و بيجذب المهتمين في تاريخ الفضاء ، غير تاريخ الفضاء الكتاب تناول جوانب سياسية بدون ما يخرج عن الموضوع الأساسي ، جميعها كانت تتعلق بالدوافع والتوقعات للسفر إلى الفضاء

أعجبني انه تجاهل ذكر الشركات التجارية ، وشرح كيف تمت الإستفادة من التكنولوجيا الألمانية في 1945 ، وجرائم الحرب اللي نجمت عن إنتاج صواريخ V-2 ، عمليات التجسس ، و أسباب تباطؤ سباق الفضاء ، المواضيع كلها ثارت فضولي حتى مع معرفتي المسبقة لبعضها ، الحاجة الوحيدة اللي توهتني هي التسلسل الزمني للأحداث كان ممكن يكون بطريقة أرتب يسهل تتبعه

ينتهي الكتاب عند الصفحة 139 ، في بقية الصفحات مسرد المصطلحات و ملاحظات و قراءات إضافية ، الكاتب تعب على كل شيء بالأخص المصادر ، لذلك بيكون إختيار جيد جدًا للحصول على نظرة عامة سريعة عن رحلات الفضاء ، للي ما يملك أي فكرة عنها ، بالنسبة للشيء الجديد علي لقيت شرح مفصل حول جهود الدول الأخرى للبدء في الاستكشاف ، حيث إن معرفتي في هذا المجال كانت مقتصرة على جهود الولايات المتحدة والسوفييت

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[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great introduction to and overview of the complete history of spaceflight, from the earliest days of rocketry to the present. While the slim 200 page book doesn't leave room for much expansion, especially on some of the larger moments in space history, this works in the book's favor, giving equal weight to events usually overlooked in the overall narrative.

[Anas Tariq · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب رائع يستحق القراءة، تناول فيه الكاتب تاريخ رحلات الفضاء بسلاسة، لكن على الرغم من أن الكتاب أصدر عام 2018 (ترجم بالعربية 2020)، لم يذكر الكاتب الإنجازات العظيمة للعديد من شركات الفضاء الحكومية أو الخاصة! لم يذكر سبيس إكس وقيامها بأول هبوط ناجح لمعزز المرحلة الأولى لصاروخ فالكون9 في التاريخ، والمزيد من الإنجازات من شركات مثل: بلو أوريجين، روكيت لاب، بوينغ، فيرجين أوربيت.

[Dennis Robbins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good place to start to study the history of space flight. The chapter on the development of “astroculture” and “astrofuturism” is particularly interesting and important for understanding the inspiration behind human space exploration.

[Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful, very well written and researched discussion of the history of humans using space. It covers human spaceflight, during and after the space race, the actual expansion of the global infrastructure into earth orbit, and the role of national security in all of this happening. He also did an interesting chapter on the evolution of and commitment to a "astroculture" that seems to have become a worldwide consensus that space is the future of mankind.

I really liked his simple, clear presentation of how the moon race was driven by a unique national security need to demonstrate that the Western culture could beat the communist one in feats of technical achievement at a time when that was in doubt. He draws well on the strong history of that, including John Logsdon's marvelous John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon.

I thought Neufeld makes a valuable contribution to thinking about the evolution of our use of space when he several time refers to the "artificially accelerated technology for space". It is valuable to realize that the political race to demonstrate space achievements, coupled with the early evidence that space makes a difference for reconnaissance and communications, created a period of high expectations for space but with a very narrow set of technical capabilities driven by specific programs that did not easily scale to applications of space not driven by governments. I think this is an important reason why the promise of space technology has seemed so slow for so long, but is beginning to take off now that technological capabilities have improved.

Well worth your time. Note that it is very short -- the publisher says 218 pages, but almost half the pages are full-page quotes or pictures. (You might note that I took almost 2 months to read it, but it's because I picked it as "read at my desk when I have a free lunch" book for 2024. I always have a book like that, and I read it in a few small bursts.)

[B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book really good at covering the foundational bases of understanding spaceflight as a cultural, military, and historical concept. I thought the structuring inhibited the flow of information rather than helped it, which I find with some technical nonfiction as it is being written by historians or scientists rather than writers by trade. Concepts were prevented half in and half outside of a timeline, and half the chapters were organised by periods of time while the other half were organised by subtopic (unrelated to positions in time). The editing in the organisation and structure could've been unified and really tightened the flow. The information is there, and good, but is presented in this basic yet nonconductive way that slows the reader down.

I loved the bits on pre-rocket spaceflight work and early science fiction, as well as the discussion and idea of alien life being a driving motivator in spaceflight advancement. I thought the tracing of rocket and space capacity development on both sides of the Cold War was clear and comprehensive, too. It was really quite engaging despite its editing/structure flaws.

[18allcornn007 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book at a new scientist convention in and overall I can say that it is a good book for people who are into spaceflight and covers a broad amount of history which is easily digestible - my favourite part is where it covers the allies (mainly the Americans) seizing of the v2 rockets during the near end of the second World War and the escalation of the Cold War. Overall, I am loving this book.(non - fiction)

[Varrick Nunez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this title based on a friend's recommendation.

It's worth reading for a quick overview of human spaceflight, particularly if you really didn't know anything. It also fills in the blanks about other nations' efforts to begin exploration, as I didn't really know anything about non-US exploration.

There isn't much here as to the "how" though. Also, the narrative jumps around on the timeline, so that can be a little confusing

[Kateryna · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting introduction to spaceflight, however, I did not enjoy the book's organization. The first three chapters were engaging and logical (read them in three working days), but slowly after the fourth, it went down (it was an honest commitment to finish the book). In a nutshell, it is a good book for someone with little to no knowledge about spaceflight.

[Kerry Pickens · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is exactly what the title says: a concise history of the space industry through the very beginning stages to the development of the "military industrial complex" and up to 2018 where Elon Musk is working on SpaceX. It is really amazing the billions of dollars spent on space programs, and I would be interested in knowing how much of that spending contributed to our national debt.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read kind of like a mini high school text book outlining the history of spaceflight, up from the earliest conceptions through the modern era (ending in the late 2010s). Which is roughly the education level I have on this topic tbh so worked out completely fine. A little dry but full of cool info, a few cool images and easily digestible info.

[Peter B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good, concise (heh), detailed without being thick, hits a lot of different points about the motivations and expectations for space travel.
Also, the Washington Post podcast Moonrise certainly looked at this book a lot.

[Max D'onofrio · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the books in MIT's Essential Knowledge Series, "Spaceflight" holds true to its form by clearly covering the history of space travel in succinct chapters with spatterings of interesting detail. A great pocket history of how we got to space, and a few details on why we should still go.

[Sabari Nathan Anbalagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is, indeed, a concise history of Spaceflight. However, I felt the writing was too academic. It presents facts after facts after facts with little effort to engage the reader. I may not have had the right expectation but, a bit of illustration would have massively helped track the timeline.

[April Birchall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good book. It was nicely organized, touched on main topics of interest, and both studied the history and future of spaceflight. It referenced inspiration for space travel, cosmonauts, astronauts, media, politics, and more.

[Nima Jamshidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely dry but thorough and concise.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exactly as advertised: a brief history and timeline of spaceflight from its inception until the present. Great place to start for those interested in space exploration.

[Starbreeze · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great as intro, especially due to the many sources and references for follow-up.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cool history

[Nick Van · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive but succinct — perfect for the series and this subject.

[Philroy Hinds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took a relatively dense topic and made it easily digestible and mostly easy to retain. Neufeld made spaceflight history interesting for me.
Read for grad school.

[Zach B · Rating 4 out of 5]

This well written, concise survey of space flight is an excellent primer for anyone looking to gain a good foundation on the subject and an excellent refresher for current enthusiasts.

[سهام محمد · Rating 4 out of 5]

لقد أعجبني كثيراً ★

[أحمد · Rating 2 out of 5]

استعراض لتاريخ الرحلات الفضائية وسياق تطورها في ضوء الحرب الباردة ومابعدها والتحديات في هذا المجال ، على الرغم من السرد الجيد ، لاتخفى النظرة السلبية للإتحاد السوفيتي وروسيا في عدة مواقع من الكتاب

[Katerina · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5