Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Rocket (1950)




There was few if any non-fiction children's books about spaceflight before World War 2. Because of the use of rockets in that war in Russia and the U.S., there developed a trickle of children's books about rockets. These books restated the history of rockets, how they were used in war and the possibility that rockets might help people leave the planet. Before the war this was mostly science fiction but these books introduced the idea that it was possible.


"Rocket" by B. Ljapunov and pictures by N. Kolchitsky. 159 p.




The Russians had a slight step up on the US because of their writer/scientist/inventor K. Tsiolkovsky. He had speculated widely about the possibilities of space, designed rockets and written science fiction about flights. He was respected in Russia as a "son of Russia". Much more so than Robert Goddard was respected in the US for similar visions.


These space station designs are incredible and really show how construction in space did not have to be aerodynamic.

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