That 'one small step for man' in July 1969 was made possible by a small group of Germans captured by the Americans at the end of WWII. "e;The Rocket's Trail"e; is about one of these men, his direct links to crimes against humanity, and how US Cold War Warriors went to extreme lengths to cover them up. The story is revealed through the eyes of Jim Black, an English scientist drafted in to the secret post-war intellectual reparations programme. Black's personal ambition leads him into a deception that denies the German rocket scientists to Britain and delivers them to America. Black joins them there but when he discovers the truth about one of his new colleagues, he must choose between his new career and complicity in covering up unimaginable crimes. Can he find redemption, and what price must he pay as Washington sets about suppressing the barbaric back-story of one of their prize rocket scientists? "e;The Rocket's Trail"e; blends a fictional hero with real historical figures including Wernher von Braun, J. Edgar Hoover, Eli Rosenbaum, and Arthur Rudolph, the Director of the Saturn rocket programme and the only former Nazi eventually expelled from America.

Selected as a Mission Specialist in 1978 in the first group of shuttle astronauts, Mike Mullane completed three missions and logged 356 hours aboard the Discovery and Atlantis shuttles. It was a dream come true. As a boy, Mullane could only read about space travel in science fiction, but the launch of Sputnik changed all that. Space flight became a possible dream and Mike Mullane set out to make it come true. In this absorbing memoir, Mullane gives the first-ever look into the often hilarious, sometime volatile dynamics of space shuttle astronauts - a class that included Vietnam War veterans, feminists, and propeller-headed scientists. With unprecedented candour, Mullane describes the chilling fear and unparalleled joy of space flight. As his career centred around the Challenger disaster, Mullane also recounts the heartache of burying his friends and colleagues. And he pulls no punches as he reveals the ins and outs of NASA, frank in his criticisms of the agency. A blast from start to finish, Riding Rockets is a straight-from-the-gut account of what it means to be an astronaut, just in time for this latest generation of stargazers.

Winner of the Luigi Napolitano Award (2006) from the International Academy of Astronautics This book presents the fascinating story of the events that paved the way to space. It introduces the reader to the history of early rocketry and the subsequent developments that led into the space age. People of various nations and from various lands contributed to the breakthrough to space, and the book takes the reader to faraway places on five continents. It also includes many quotes to give readers a flavor of how the participants viewed the developments. Most publications on the topic either target narrow aspects of rocket history or are popular books that scratch the surface, with minimal and sometimes inaccurate technical details. This book bridges the gap. It contains numerous technical details usually unavailable in popular publications. The details are not overbearing and anyone interested in rocketry and space exploration will navigate through the book without difficulty. There are 340 figures and photographs, many appearing for the first time.

In Hitler’s Rockets Norman Longmate tells the story of the V-2, the technically brilliant but hated weapon, the ancestor and forerunner of all subsequent ballistic missiles. He reveals the devious power-play within the German armed forces and the Nazi establishment that so influenced the creation of the rockets. He shows through contemporary documents and protagonists’ accounts how the British intelligence skillfully pieced together often contradictory evidence as it sought to establish the true nature of the threat. Finally he recalls in detail the feel and fears of the time from the viewpoint of those who suffered, and those who were all too conscious tat they were the target.