I am selling the books listed below. Shipping will be added to all prices, however only the true shipping cost, depending on book size and weight as well as chosen delivery speed, will be charged, without any additional surcharge for handling. If you are interested, please email me at snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net (remove .NOSPAM from the address) ? the Compuserve address above is no longer valid.
------------------------------------------------------------- For sale is a copy of " International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems" by Steven J. Isakowitz, published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Washington, DC, First Edition, 1991, paperback. This instructive and authoritative book contains a complete and technically detailed inventory of launch vehicles from all around the world, covering orbital rockets and associated launch facilities of China, Europe, India, Israel, Japan, Soviet Union and the USA. It includes technical design, operational and performance data and information like stage and vehicle masses and dimensions, propellants, engine types and parameters, target orbits and associated payload capabilities, as well as historical summaries and statistical launch records listing individual flights including flight number, launch date, vehicle designation, launch site, payloads, and failure causes. Most information is presented in standard tabular formats to facilitate comparisons and ensure quick and easy data retrieval. This first edition also comprises historical launch systems data not covered in later editions, such as the French Diamant, the British Black Arrow, the Soviet lunar super booster G-1-e or the American Saturn V moon rocket. The book has a total of 295 pages and is 8 ½" x 11 ¼" tall and ¾" thick. It includes sections on 28 different launch vehicle types and families as well as a top level launch vehicle overview and is illustrated with black and white photographs, drawings, diagrams, charts and maps. The book is an ex library copy that was recently surplussed by the Boeing company branch library at the Huntington Beach plant and wears the stamp "Withdrawn from Boeing Library Holdings" as well as typical library marks, stamps and stickers. It has some wear, creases and soiling to the front and back covers and the outside as well as light damage to the back and a few pages, but it is otherwise in good condition. The price is $16.
------------------------------------------------------------- For sale is a copy of "Halfway to Anywhere: Achieving America's Destiny in Space", by G. Harry Stine, M. Evans and Company, Inc., New York, First Edition, 1996, hardcover, no dust jacket. This book discusses the development and future potential of reusable single-stage-to-orbit launch vehicles aimed at providing economical, reliable, on demand space transportation of people and cargos to and from low-Earth orbit, which may be capable of opening space to commercial enterprises. It retraces the development of the Douglas DC-X (Delta Clipper Experimental) reusable rocket demonstrator, and notes that its relatively quick prototyping of only twenty-two months provided proof of concepts of reusability and quick aircraft like turnaround. The DC-X first flew in 1993 and was repeatedly flown and tested until 1995. Stine surveys the commercial potential of such a vehicle with a good look at the economics involved in such a venture and provides examples of the kinds of opportunities that will be opening up for commercial interest, from consumer participation in space flights to manufacturing under weightless conditions. He presents a sample business plan produced by experienced venture capitalists that marshals scientific and economic savvy and shows how considerable profits are available to those who get into low-Earth orbit, from where, as science fiction author Robert Heinlein put it, one has already expended the energy to be "halfway to anywhere in the solar system". The book features forewords by former Apollo astronaut Charles 'Pete' Conrad, who was a vice president of McDonnell Douglas Corporation, the company that designed and built the DC-X, and who also served as the flight manager of the DC-X test flights, as well as by investment analyst Wolfgang Demisch. The book has a total of 304 pages and is 6 ¼" x 9 ¼" tall and 1" thick. It includes 26 chapters illustrated with black and white photographs, drawings, and diagrams, an appendix with excerpts of a talk by former NASA administrator Dan Goldin, a bibliography, addresses and an index. The book is an ex library copy that was recently surplussed by the Boeing company branch library at the Huntington Beach plant and wears the stamp "Withdrawn from Boeing Library Holdings". Considering that this is ironically the very same former McDonnell Douglas plant where the DC-X was conceived and built, this book represent a bit of aerospace history in itself. Apart from typical library marks, stamps and, the book is in very good condition. The price is $10.
------------------------------------------------------------- For sale is a copy of "Rockets into Space" by Frank H. Winter, Frontiers of Space series, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA,
1990, hardcover, dust jacket. This volume is a well-written and informative comprehensive history of the theoretical formulations and technological breakthroughs that have charted the evolution of rocket propulsion and vehicle design and succinctly discusses the development of space launch vehicles, from the founders of modern space flight theory, to the early rocket experimenters through current expendable launchers to future space propulsion systems in concise chapters dense with narrative and anecdotal detail. It begins with an overview of the big three pioneer theorists Tsiolkovsky, Goddard, and Oberth. A particularly interesting chapter describes the clandestine development of the V-2 rocket in Germany and its impact on postwar rocket research and satellite development in the U. S. and Soviet Union. Winter traces the lineage of present-day launch vehicles from their Cold War origins as weapons systems to current satellite launchers. It is a detailed, technical discussion of the various rockets, both Russian and American, that have made space exploration possible. A chapter at the end discusses the future and surveys exotic propulsion systems that currently lie on the frontiers of science, like nuclear, ion, solar, laser, and a few other means of propulsion that will shape the spaceflight and space policy decisions of tomorrow. The book has a total of 165 pages and is 6 ¾" x 9 ½" tall and ¾" thick. It includes 22 illustration plates comprising black and white photographs and artistic drawings, source notes and an index. The book is a slightly used copy with a dust jacket. The dust jacket has some creasing and scratching, but the book is otherwise in very good condition. The price is $12.------------------------------------------------------------- For sale is a copy of "Creating Space: The Story of the Space Age Told Through Models" by Mat Irvine, Space Series, Apogee Books, 2002, paperback. The book chronicles the history of the conquest of space, from the ideas of Leonardo da Vinci over the dawn of the space age with the V-2 rocket of World War II to the International Space Station and beyond, through model kits. It presents an exhaustive and detailed compendium of the evolution of space vehicles, side by side with pictures and details of the plastic reproductions that depict the multitude of launchers, missiles and spacecraft designed and developed throughout the world. The first half of the book, which is all in color, is presented in chapters that group the history, the vehicles and the models into logical and meaningful categories. Each chapter gives a brief historical overview of the subject and chronicles the model kits that cover the period. All known kits are covered, from the releases of the major modeling companies such as Revell, Monogram, Strombecker, et. al., to one-man operations. The informative and entertaining text is accompanied by hundreds of photographs of box art from rare vintage to current kits, built-up models, catalog and advertising pages, and in-store displays. Chapters are divided into Early Dreams (early spacecraft concepts), Wartime Experiences (rocket planes and missiles), Optimistic Times (von Braun designs including the classic Disney designs from their Man Into Space series and more), Man in Space (early US and Russian space programs), Missile Connection (ballistic missiles), One Small Step (Apollo), Gone To Launch (other launch vehicles), Messages from Space (satellites), Edge of Space (aircraft), Reusable Spaceship (shuttles), Islands In The Sky (space stations) and Beyond the Infinite (science fiction subjects, namely UFOs, the Roswell Incident, and a few scientifically accurate space fiction movies such as Destination Moon and 2001: A Space Odyssey). The rest of the book consists of extensive appendices that contain a complete listing of space related kits produced, divided by model company and vehicle type, and provide details of all of the space-related models ever made and the many manufacturers and distributors who have supplied them. The appendix listings for the kits cover 250 modeling subjects and 300 model manufacturers and contain a plethora of valuable reference information for model historians, collectors, modelers, space enthusiasts and anyone who is trying to find out if a kit of a particular subject was ever made. Kits are listed in two formats, by manufacturer and by subject. The manufacturer lists also include information about the company, such as the address (if known), when the company was in operation, etc. The kits are then listed with the scale, kit number, and date of first issue. It even includes kits that were announced, but never released. Virtually everything relevant about each kit is discussed in detail, including reissues, box art, etc. The subject listing includes everything from the A series of German rockets to the Russian Zenit booster. A short paragraph describes the subject, followed by a table listing the models, their manufacturers and scales for each subject. Specific kit information (number and date of issue), can be found the manufacturer listing. The subject listing is also replete with black and white photos of the actual prototypes. The final appendix lists some kit collecting organizations (since many of the kits discussed in the book are long out of production), kit dealers, web sites and other books pertaining to the subject of space modeling.