Secrets of Space Exploration (1958)

 

Celebrating 2,883,898 views of my Dreams of Space site today. I started this Blog in Feb of 2009 so now it is over 17 years old. (Drinking party next year!)

My first "space" book in Arabic. I am pretty sure that it was more for adults and from the illustrations may be a translation of a Russian book. It still fascinates me that spaceflight is so knew that people published space books for the layperson to explain the basics of space flight. Finding these book in many languages convinces me that the "space race" was global as people tried to understand what had changed with Sputnik launches.

So it is a bit of an oddity and can't be very common or well known. 

Sharaf, Dr. Abdulaziz Tareeh. Secrets of Space Exploration. ( كتاب أسرار غزو الفضاء الأقمار الصناعية Arabic) (101 p.) 1958. 

Illustration of Sputnik satellite

A Russian space station?

A more traditional Russian space station

Maintain gravity on a longer trip using centripetal force.

My favorite illustration in the book. A Moon lander with return ship.

Getting to Mars

Getting to Mercury and Venus

My Weekly Reader (Current Events) 1963, Sept 30

 

Here is an issue of Current Events. I think this was a weekly newspaper for high school students (an advanced version of My Weekly Reader.) In this issue they discuss "Why should we go to the Moon?" and how much it might cost.

I lived through this time (although I was about 4 years old) but I never heard about Kennedy suggesting we cooperate with the Russians to get to the Moon. (I guess I need to read more space history)

My Weekly Reader 1963 April 1

 

Sixty years ago in 1963 we were looking ahead to Mars and Venus. Secord graders got an insight into what we might explore beyond the Moon.

True Comics, December 1948. (“Rocket Trip to the Moon” )

 

Something old about a trip to the Moon. Celebrating trying another trip to the Moon here is a non-fiction story from 1948. Stuck in an obscure comic book it tells the story of spaceflight to come.

True Comics. No. 80, December 1948. (“Rocket Trip to the Moon” p. 10-15.) Chicago: Parent’s Magazine Press. 28 p. 1948. 

"So that one day, soon, air-line announcers will call out flights going East, West, North, South and Up."