Exploring the Unknown; Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program: Volume IV: Accessing Space, NASA SP-4407

Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Office of Policy and Plans, NASA History Division, 1999. Presumed first edition/first printing. Hardcover. Good [Some front board weakness noted]./very good. VOLUME IV ONLY. xxxi, [1], 684 pages. 25 cm. Illustrations. Biographies of Volume IV Contributors. Glossary. Biographical Appendix. Index. Essays on Access to Space, Developing the Space Shuttle, Commercializing Space Transportation, and Exploring Future Space transportation Possibilities. Slight wear and soiling to DJ. This is part of the NASA History Series. John M. Logsdon is Charles A. Lindbergh Chair in Aerospace History at the National Air and Space Museum;. From 1987 to mid-2008, Logsdon was Director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, where he is also Professor Emeritus of Political Science and International Affairs. Dr. Logsdon's research interests focus on the policy and historical aspects of U.S. and international space activities. Dr. Logsdon is the author of The Decision to Go to the Moon: Project Apollo and the National Interest and is general editor of the eight-volume series Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program. He has written numerous articles and reports on space policy and history. He is frequently consulted by the electronic and print media for his views on space issues. This volume is the fourth in a series that had its origins in the 1990s. The individuals involved in initiating the series and producing the first two volumes have been acknowledged. An exception must be made for NASA Chief Historian Roger D. Launius, who has become not only a strong supporter of this series but also an essential collaborator in its implementation. One of the most important developments of the twentieth century has been the movement of humanity into space with machines and people. The underpinnings of that movement—why it took the shape it did; which individuals and organizations were involved; what factors drove a particular choice of scientific objectives and technologies to be used; and the political, economic, managerial, and international contexts in which the events of the space age unfolded—are all important ingredients of this epoch transition from an Earthbound to a spacefaring people. This desire to understand the development of spaceflight in the United States sparked this documentary history series. The documents selected for inclusion in this volume are presented in four major chapters, each covering a particular aspect of access to space and the manner in which it has developed over time. These chapters focus on the evolution toward the giant Saturn V rocket, the development of the Space Shuttle, space transportation commercialization, and future space transportation possibilities. Each chapter in this volume is introduced by an overview essay, prepared by individuals who are particularly well qualified to write on the topic. In the main, these essays are intended to introduce and complement the documents in the chapter and to place them, for the most part, in a chronological and substantive context. Each essay contains references to the documents in the chapter it introduces, and many also contain references to documents in other chapters of the collection. The contents of this volume emphasize primary documents or long-out-of-print essays or articles and material from the private recollections of important actors in shaping space affairs. Key legislation and policy statements are also included. The contents of this volume thus do not comprise in themselves a comprehensive historical account; they must be supplemented by other sources, those both already available and to become available in the future. Indeed, a few of the documents included in this collection are not complete; some portions of them were still subject to security classification as the volume went to print.