Books written by Roger D. Launius

Coming Home: Reentry and Recovery from Space

Reentry and Recovery from Space Roger D. Launius, Dennis R. Jenkins National Aeronautics and Space Administration ... Linda R. Cohen , Susan A. Edelman , and Roger G. Noll , " The National Aerospaceplane : An American Technological Long ...
Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman

On the same day Finley made himself general manager, A's manager Haywood Sullivan resigned to become the Red Sox vice president in charge of player personnel. Sullivan, who wanted to move into the business side of baseball, ...
Smithsonian Atlas of Space Exploration

One man who foresaw the possible outcomes of the space craze was the silent movie maker Fritz Lang. After reading Oberth's book, he decided to film an adventure story about space travel.The result was the 1929 feature Die Frau Im Mond ...
Apollo's Legacy: Perspectives on the Moon Landings

“All-up”: George E. Mueller, NASA, to Manned Spacecraft Center director et al., October 31, 1963; Eberhard Rees, Marshall Space Flight Center director, to Robert Sherrod, March 4, 1970, both in “Saturn 'All-Up' Testing Concept” File, ...
To Reach the High Frontier: A History of U.S. Launch Vehicles

... Eberhard Rees, "Project and Systems Management in the Apollo Program," Issues in NASA Program and Project Management, NASA SP-6101 (02) (Washington, D.C.: NASA, 1989), pp. 24-34. 58. Dael Wolfe, Executive Officer, ...
Robots In Space: Technology, Evolution, and Interplanetary Travel

833–36; P. R. Christensen et al., “Initial Results from the Mini-TES Experiment in Gusev Crater from the Spirit Rover,” Science, August 6, 2004, pp. 837–42; H. Y. McSween et al., “Basaltic Rocks Analyzed by the Spirit Rover in Gusev ...
Robots in Space: Technology, Evolution, and Interplanetary Travel

The first brown dwarf sits at a distance quite far from Epsilon Indi, well beyond the equivalent orbits of the major planets in the Earth's solar system. The second brown dwarf circles the first. Brown dwarfs are substellar objects ...
Alexander William Doniphan: Portrait of a Missouri Moderate

The key to Doniphan's prominence as a Missouri attorney, military leader, politician, and businessman from the 1830s to the 1880s lay in his persistent moderation on the critical issues of his day.
Joseph Smith III: Pragmatic Prophet

In one such discussion , Putnam suggested that Smith seriously consider going to Utah , where Putnam thought he might be able to accomplish much good . As a reformer within the movement , Putnam asserted , Smith could take " the lead ...
Seasons in the Sun: The Story of Big League Baseball in Missouri

NewYork: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1944. Lipman, David. Mr. Baseball: The Story of Branch Rickey. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1966. Murphy, B. Keith. “Curt Flood and Baseball's Reserve Clause: An Examination of Symbolic Martyrdom.
Apollo: A Retrospective Analysis. Monograph in Aerospace History,

Only the building of the Panama Canal rivaled the Apollo program's size as the largest non- military technological endeavor ever undertaken by the United States; only the Manhattan Project was comparable in a wartime setting.
Reconsidering Sputnik: Forty Years Since the Soviet Satellite

Four days later Waterman sent a letter to Robert Murphy , Deputy Under Secretary of State , proposing that the United States conduct just such a scientific mission . " Those at the National Academy would not have been privy to ...
Unofficial History of NASA Mission Patches

Collectors avidly acquire mission patches; many are readily available but some are rare. Several manufacturers make versions of these patches, and seeking out the various versions, learning about their differences, and expanding the ...
Frontiers of Space Exploration

Caspar W. Weinberger memorandum to the President, via George Shultz, "Future of NASA," 12 August 1971, White House, Richard M. Nixon, President, 1968-1971 File, NASA Historical Reference Collection. 12. John Erlichman interview by John ...
Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman

Everyone agreed this was very odd, and players and coaches began to speculate privately about how soon Kennedy would be fired. The A's were still playing .500 baseball, but falling further off the pace of the eventual American League ...
The Smithsonian History of Space Exploration: From the Ancient World to the Extraterrestrial Future

The public commitment of U.S. President John F. Kennedy to send Americans to the Moon (p. 132) was an overt challenge to the Soviet Union to demonstrate technological supremacy inspace exploration. The winner would undoubtedly gain ...
Apollo and America's Moon Landing Program - Project Apollo: A Retrospective Analysis - A Narrative Account Starting with the Kennedy...

" Contents include: The Kennedy Perspective on Space * The Soviet Challenge Renewed * Reevaluating NASA's Priorities * The NASA Position * Decision * An Assessment of the Decision * Gearing Up for Project Apollo * The Program Management ...
Milestones of Space: Eleven Iconic Objects from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

DIVIn Milestones of Space, Michael Neufeld and select curators of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum present a gorgeous illustrated celebration of the groundbreaking spacecraft that gave humanity its first steps into the cosmos. ...
Reconsidering a Century of Flight

Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the first flight, these essays chart the central role that aviation played in twentieth-century history and capture the spirit of innovation and adventure that has characterized the history of flight.
Reaching for the Moon

Montgomery, Scott L. The Moon and the Western Imagination. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1999. The author has produced a richly detailed analysis of how the Moon has been visualized in Western culture through the ages, ...