Imagining Space: Achievements - Predictions - Possibilities 1950-2050 - Hardcover

From Buck Rogers and winged rocketships to televised lunar landings and the exploration of Mars, space travel has gone from fantasy to reality in just fifty years. Where will we be fifty years from now? This visionary book follows the predictions of rocket scientists and science fiction authors in the 1950s to our accomplishments today and projects what is next beyond Earth orbit. A foreword by Ray Bradbury opens worlds of possibility, and chief NASA historian Roger D. Launius and Dr. Howard E. McCurdy of American University chart the dreams and realities of our future in space in light of our amazing achievements to date. With more than 150 breathtaking photographs and artist's renderings, and an engaging text, Imagining Space anticipates new generations of spacecraft, the promise of space colonies, recreational and commuter space travel, space commerce and ecology, the human exploration of Mars, and other far-reaching subjects. A sweeping survey of things to come, Imagining Space gives a true reading of our spirit of adventure in the next frontier. The book is heavily illustrated and designed to juxtapose the retro future visions of the fifties with visions of what's happening now and coming next.

Howard E. McCurdy is professor of public affairs at the American University in Washington, D.C. He is the author of three previous books on the U.S. space program (The Space Station Decision, Inside NASA, and Space and the American Imagination) and coeditor, with Roger D. Launius, of Spaceflight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership. Roger D. Launius has served as chief historian for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for many years. A former civilian staff historian for the United States Air Force, he has lectured widely to military, scholarly, and general audiences on a range of historical subjects. Vice-president for publications of the American Astronautical Society and editor of the journal Space Times, he has written and edited numerous books on aerospace history, including NASA & the Exploration of Space, Frontiers of Space Exploration, and Using Space. Ray Bradbury is the author of more than thirty books, including THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, FAHRENHEIT 451, THE ILLUSTRATED MAN, and SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, and in 2000 received the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives with his wife in Los Angeles, California.