When Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980, limits on NASA funding and the lack of direction under the Nixon and Carter administrations had left the U.S. space program at a crossroads. In contrast to his predecessors, Reagan saw outer space as humanity’s final frontier and as an opportunity for global leadership. His optimism and belief in American exceptionalism guided a decade of U.S. activities in space, including bringing the space shuttle into operation, dealing with the 1986 Challenger accident and its aftermath, committing to a permanently crewed space station, encouraging private sector space efforts, and fostering international space partnerships with both U.S. allies and with the Soviet Union. Drawing from a trove of declassified primary source materials and oral history interviews, John M. Logsdon provides the first comprehensive account of Reagan’s civilian and commercial space policies during his eight years in the White House. Even as a fiscal conservative who was hesitant to increase NASA’s budget, Reagan’s enthusiasm for the space program made him perhaps the most pro-space president in American history.

In this alternate history novel, what-if Ronald Reagan became President in 1976 instead and the Space Race turned out differently? He pledges to support NASA with the moon landings, and declares that a moon base would be established by 1979, followed by a Mars Base by 1989. The Soviets decide to up the ante by building something bigger.The rest of Earth follows the original timeline, so terrorism rears its ugly head, which will forever change American politics. Iran and its attempt at taking hostages is taken care of in 1979, but a new threat emerges because of it. The new President of the United States has to pursue these enemies of the U.S. to secure America's future. We follow America's progress from Moon to Mars, along with the Teacher in Space Program, to an eventual starship mission out of the solar system, which will continue in book two, Final Frontier.

Looks at the operations of the International Space Station from the perspective of the Houston flight control team, under the leadership of NASA's flight directors, who authored the book. The book provides insight into the vast amount of time and energy that these teams devote to the development, planning and integration of a mission before it is executed. The passion and attention to detail of the flight control team members, who are always ready to step up when things do not go well, is a hallmark of NASA human spaceflight operations. With tremendous support from the ISS program office and engineering community, the flight control team has made the International Space Station and the programs before it a success.

Many complex problems of space flight are explained in layman's language.

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong took 'one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.' The success of the Apollo 11 mission satisfied the goal that had been set by President John F. Kennedy just over eight years earlier. It also raised the question 'What do you do next, after landing on the Moon?' It fell to President Richard M. Nixon to answer this question. After Apollo? Richard Nixon and the American Space Program traces in detail how Nixon and his associates went about developing their response.