There's Adventure in Astronautics (1961)

A colorful book (black AND blue!) to finish out July.  This book is a mix of a fictional story of boys studying space flight and various informative panels with space facts.

May, Julian. Illustrated by Potts, Richard. There’s Adventure in Astronautics. New York: Hawthorn Books. (160 p.) 1961.

 Detailed descriptions of different types of space propulsion

 Again I love the Dynasoar space vehicle.

 The boys in their "space laboratory" project.

 An outline of some of the future promises of space.

Man on the Moon : Our Future in Space (1961)

Happy Moon Landing day! We landed on the Moon 51 years ago today. From 1961 that event seemed far away and what the ships we would use and techniques were still obscure. I enjoy this book for one of the many visions of what it "might" be like.

Throneburg, James. Illustrated by Plasencia, Peter. Man on the Moon: Our Future in Space. New York: Alfred A Knopf. (63 p.) 1961.

 The space suit and rocket designs seem very different from what we see in these books just a year or two later.

 An important question: "Why then would anyone want to go to the moon?

 Still in the era of multi-person "expeditions to the moon.

 Such a roomy ship, with enough headroom for a child to stow away in the rafters :)

Still a moment that I am amazed I got to see.

We didn't get around to a lot of exploring but we did "get many handfuls of the moon and take them back to the scientists on earth."

Go! The Story of Outer Space (1962)

A simpler book but I love the delta wing spacecraft illustrations.

Verral, Charles Spain. Illustrated by Zachs, Lewis. Go! The Story of Outer Space. New York: Prentice-Hall. (72 p.) 1962.

Seven Into Space: The Story of the Mercury Astronauts (1960)

Not a lot of illustrations, mostly black and white photos but an amazing cover.  It is a book about the Mercury 7 and what they will need to train for spaceflight.

Bell, Joseph N. Seven into Space: The Story of the Mercury Astronauts. Chicago: Popular Mechanics Co. (192 p.) 1960.

 A special gift to a special boy...

Satellites in Outer Space (1960)

We start off July with a set of early 1960-1962 children's books. Most of the illustrations were in black and white but are still impressive for their beauty. 

One of the earliest children's book by Isaac Asimov.  The illustration of satellites by John Polgreen are especially beautiful.

Asimov, Isaac. Illustrated by Polgreen, John. Satellites in Outer Space. New York: Random House. (79 p.) 1960.

 I had never seen this illustrations of the size of these early satellites scaled to a human.