Space Author:Andrew Chaikin "The immensity...the beauty...the challenge...the triumphs and the tragedies... are captured in Andy Chaikin's elegant photo history." Neil Armstrong "Fortunately, we don't have to take somebody's word that space looks even more glorious than the mind can imagine or words can describe. The photographs in this book capture a vision of the Heav... more »ens and our Earth with a crystal clarity which we are lucky enough to see with our own eyes." Tom Hanks Columbus didnt have a camera, but Neil Armstrong did. So did hundreds of astronauts and space probes that voyaged to the moon and beyond, into the depths of space. For almost half a century their spectacular photographs have shown us the breathtaking beauty of our own planet Earth, the alien starkness of other worlds, and the vast reaches of the universe a reality that is even more amazing than we could imagine. Now acclaimed science journalist Andrew Chaikin has assembled a landmark collection of space photographs that document these fantastic voyages. Space: A History of Space Exploration in Photographs contains 300 photographs chosen from thousands of images in the space archives of NASA, Russia, and Europe. Included are some of the most important photographs of the 20th century, along with many rare and never-before-published images. This October marks the 45th anniversary of the space age, which began in 1957 with the launch of Sputnik, the worlds first artificial satellite. In the photographs and his engaging text Chaikin captures all the key events that followed, from the Cold War "space race" to todays era of space cooperation. Historic images of the first man in space, the first space walks, and the first footsteps on the moon are included. So are the Viking Mars landings, the Voyager "Grand Tour" of the outer planets, the Space Shuttle, and the Mir space station. Chaikin takes us up to the present with glimpses of life aboard the International Space Station, the fantastic discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope, and the tantalizing evidence for water on Mars. Space is a definitive collection of space photography assembled by one of the worlds premiere space historians.« less