Aeronautics & Astronautics

The New York Times best-selling, "meticulously researched and absorbingly written" (The Washington Post) story of the trailblazers and the ordinary Americans on the front lines of the epic Apollo 11 moon mission....

From the development of the U-2 to the Stealth fighter, the never-before-told story behind America's high-stakes quest to dominate the skies....

Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists had a different view. Malcolm Gladwell reexamines moments from the past and asks whether we got it right the first time....

From the New York Times bestselling author of Midnight in Chernobyl comes the definitive, dramatic, minute-by-minute story of the Challenger disaster, based on fascinating in-depth reporting and new archival research—a riveting history that flows like a thriller.

Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize David McCullough tells the dramatic story behind the story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly....

The phenomenal true story of the Black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America's greatest achievements in space....

Stick and Rudder is the first exact analysis of the art of flying ever attempted. It has been continuously in print for 33 years. It shows precisely what the pilot does when he flies, just how he does it, and why....

Get the untold story of the team of game-changers, led by a well-known billionaire, who are sending NASA astronauts to space—and just might carry the human race to Mars.

Apollo is the behind-the-scenes story of an epic achievement. Based on exhaustive research that included many exclusive interviews, Apollo tells how America went from a standing start to a landing on the moon at a speed that now seems impossible....

This book conveys every aspect of the Apollo missions with breathtaking immediacy and stunning detail....

West with the Night is the story of a remarkable woman molded and shaped by many things....

Ignition! is the story of the Cold War era search for a rocket propellant that could be trusted to take man into space. A favorite of Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, listeners will want to tune into this "really good book on rocket[s]," available for the first time in audio....

As the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landing approaches, the award-winning historian and perennial New York Times best-selling author takes a fresh look at the space program, President John F. Kennedy’s inspiring challenge, and America’s race to the moon....

The space economy is just that—an economy—governed by the same laws of supply and demand that apply here on Earth. The authors bring the revolution in space to life through players you know—like SpaceX and Blue Origin—and many you may not.

When Ed White, clad in his gleaming space suit with a large American flag on his left shoulder, eased himself outside his Gemini spacecraft in 1965, Americans had a new space hero. They also learned a new acronym: EVA, short for extravehicular activity, more commonly known as "spacewalking.

The number-one best-selling author of The Future of the Mind offers a stunning vision of man's future in space....

How do you improve on the best guide for pilots to learn how to fly in all kinds of weather? The answer is the fifth edition of Weather Flying. Regarded as the bible of weather flying, this aviation classic has been updated to cover new advances in technology....

When Apollo 11 touched down on the Moon’s surface in 1969, the first man on the Moon became a legend. In First Man, author James R. Hansen explores the life of Neil Armstrong....

The riveting inside story of three heroic astronauts who took on the challenge of mankind's historic first mission to the moon, from the best-selling author of Shadow Divers....

From the New York Times bestselling author of Prisoners of Geography and leading geopolitics expert comes an essential book on today’s space race—including the increasingly tense power struggle between the US, China, and Russia and what it means for all of us here on Earth.

The Golden Age of Aviation is brought to life in this story of the giant Zeppelin airships that once roamed the sky—a story that ended with the fiery destruction of the Hindenburg....

Using interviews, NASA oral histories, and recently declassified material, Into the Black pieces together the dramatic untold story of the Columbia mission....

The inspiring story of a pathbreaking 1919 flight and the courageous fliers who risked their lives to make aviation history.

The story of Iridium - the most complex satellite system ever built, the cell phone of the future, and one of the largest corporate bankruptcies in American history - and one man's race to save it....

April 12, 1961. A young Russian sits inside a tiny capsule on top of the Soviet Union’s most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile - originally designed to carry a nuclear warhead - and blasts into the skies. His name is Yuri Gagarin. And he is about to make history....

For millennia, humanity has looked to the velvet darkness of the night sky and dreamed of visiting the stars. This book is the definitive guide to that dream in its modern, scientific form, chronicling the monumental shift from "what if" to "how." It is a comprehensive exploration of the greatest journey our species can conceive, moving the idea of interstellar travel from the pages of fiction into the realm of tangible possibility. Our voyage begins by asking the most fundamental question: why should we go? From the pragmatic need for survival and resources to the profound search for life,...

For centuries, the vast expanse between Mars and Jupiter was a mysterious void on the map of the heavens, a gap that hinted at a missing world. This book begins with the 18th-century astronomical hunt that, instead of a single planet, uncovered a realm of millions of worlds. It is the story of how that featureless gulf became the solar system's most intriguing frontier. Journey from the dramatic myth of an exploded planet, an idea that fueled a century of science fiction, to the sobering reality unveiled by our first robotic probes. Discover how the popular image of a dense, chaotic ...

For decades, humanity has looked to Mars as its next home, but what if our true destiny lies further out, on a world shrouded in a perpetual orange haze orbiting the ringed planet Saturn? This book presents the detailed and provocative case for why Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is the most logical and sustainable destination for a permanent human civilization. It is a journey from early science fiction dreams to a pragmatic blueprint for the future of humanity in the cosmos. Explore a world where rivers of liquid methane carve through a bedrock of solid water ice and towering mountains of ...

For all of human history, Venus has been a serene jewel in our night sky, a symbol of beauty and myth. But beneath its tranquil clouds lies a planetary-scale furnace hot enough to melt lead, under an atmosphere that would crush a submarine. This book explores the profound and shocking disconnect between the goddess of love we see and the monster that exists in reality. While humanity has set its sights on the red plains of Mars, a more audacious and, perhaps, more practical destination awaits. This book makes the counterintuitive case that the greatest barrier to Venus—its thick, toxic ...

For millennia, humanity has stared at the stars and dreamed. This book is about the moment those dreams give way to a plan, focusing on the brilliant point of light in our southern sky: Alpha Centauri. It is not a work of fiction, but a detailed exploration of the most audacious project ever conceived—the colonization of our closest stellar neighbor and its Earth-sized planet, Proxima b. The journey to another star is not a mission of romance, but one of sober necessity. This book lays out the compelling, pragmatic case for interstellar colonization as the ultimate insurance policy, a way...