Americans in Space (1966)

Olney, Ross. Americans in Space : Five years of manned space travel. Camden, NJ : Nelson. (123 p.) 23 cm. Cloth, DJ. 1966

Mostly illustrated with B&W drawings and photographs.  A basic history of  American spaceflight  May 5, 1961 until 1966. Mostly historical but the last chapter project the future moon-landing and solar system exploration. Also 1970 edition.

Here are a few of the "futuristic" illustrations of interest.

 The book ends with the future plans for after the moon landing:

Don't you wish we had VEMs and MEMs?

Child Life "Rocket to the Moon" (May 1951)

Child Life was one of the earlier magazines intended just for children that started in 1926 and survived until 2007.

This May 1951 article on a "Rocket to the Moon" is a fun early article for children about space flight. It is illustrated with photographs from the film "Destination Moon" which came out in 1950. A very imaginative way to illustrate this short piece of non-fiction.

This seems from the exhibit at the Hayden Planetarium but the posters don't match (just the travel desk motif)
http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2011/03/line-forms-here-for-trip-to-moon-1952.html

Rockets, Satellites and Space Travel (1958)

I spend a lot of time being excited to show people books that I have never seen before, but that leaves out those of you who aren't familiar with the best of the space books. So here is definitely a greatest hit!

Coggins, Jack, Pratt, Fletcher, and Ley, Willy. Illustrated by Coggins, Jack. Rockets, Satellites, and Space Travel. New York: Random House. (64 p.) 29 cm. Illustrated Boards. 1958

An updating of Coggins and Pratt. "Rockets, Jets, Guided Missiles, and Space Ships” (1951). Much of the text is the same tracing the history of rockets and planning for an expedition to the Moon. The updating includes discussions of artificial satellites research and the US and Russian launches of satellites. It also updates discussion of the Moon trip and atomic powered rockets. There are several added painting of Moon landers, a round space station and satellites. See 1951 1st edition here:

http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2009/03/rockets-jets-guided-missiles-and-space.html

 This chart (and the book itself) lays out an ambitious plan for future exploration. It is amazing how much had changed in the 7 years since the 1991 first edition.

 Jack Coggins was a renowned artist, especially of hardware so his paintings are very unique.

 I like the 1950s hi-fi gear and basic electronics against the background of orbiting the earth.

 A "tricked-out" space station with all the extras (solar, television, work space, man-cave etc.)

 A re-used painting from the 1951 edition, almost like an airliner in space, to circle the Moon

 A much revised moonlander.

 This painting of explorers on (Titan?) is a great combination of Bonestell and Coggins' own imagination

 A superior Mars-buggy for the modern explorer

Motorways of the Future (1962)

Motorways of the future. Moscow. 248 p. 22 cm. 1962

This seems to be part of the family of Russian books I have found about transportation in the future.  It is not a children's book but does have some very imaginative illustrations.

 The prize space painting in the book is this surrealistic view of the underside of a moon lander (or moon base on legs?)

 The painting may be an illustration of the ships in this diagram.

 Beautiful cars and roads of the future

 Flying belts

 Canals and trains everywhere

 A history of ships with the latest in the lead

Thar be whales here Capt...