The Astronauts/Keeping Up with The Astronauts (1961-1963)

Keeping Up with The Astronauts was a series/sequence of non-fiction books about the U.S. space program. Because there were so many changes and adventures they had to update it every year. Usually I highlight space art but wanted to share these as another artifact of the space age.


1961- Myrus, Don.  The Astronauts: The True Story of Man's Greatest Adventure in Outer Space. New York: Grosset and Dunlap. (92 p.) 29 cm. Illustrated Boards.

Mostly photo-illustrated this describes the first planned U.S. manned space mission. Last chapter has short biographies of the Mercury 7 astronauts.  Also 1962, 1963 editions re-titled “Keeping Up with the Astronauts”.

 The table of contents tells the story inside. They do give a glimpse of the future of U.S. space flight.

1962- Myrus, Donald. Keeping Up With the Astronauts: The Story of Man’s Greatest Adventures in Outer Space Including the John Glenn and Scott Carpenter Flights. New York: Grosset and Dunlap. (92 p.) 29 cm. Illustrated Boards.

Updated (and re-titled) edition for 1962. 

1963- Myrus, Don. Keeping Up with the Astronauts 3: The Story of Man's Greatest Adventures in Outer Space including the Glenn, Carpenter, Schirra, and Cooper Flights. New York: Grosset and Dunlap. (93 p.) 29 cm. Illustrated Boards.

This is the last of the 3 editions of this book. 

Commander Matt's Space Adventure (1971)

Just a quick oddity today, Commander Matt's Space Adventure (1971) was a record album which included scripts for student to read along. It was intended for the classroom and the directions tell the teacher how to use it. While basically a science fiction story I really like the cover illustration.

..the last line is wonderful:
"Look there---that dear old planet covered in smog---we're home."

This Week (June 21, 1959): "Here's your city of tomorrow"

Another of the old This Week (6-21-59) magazines featuring illustrations by Fred Freeman. While not spaceflight this article certainly is space age. The domed city is an important feature of 50s science fiction and astrofuturism (look it up). How does the "future" look to you from 2014?

This full color painting led readers to see what the city of the future would look like.

I will share the text of this article at the end of this post. First I would like to highlight the other Fred Freeman illustration and the detail he brought to his paintings.

There is so much detail imbedded in this large painting that the article broke it down with numbers to show some of the features of this future city:

The city of the future looks like a cross between Disneyland and many of our modern downtown public parks.

As a treat for those of you who went all the way to the bottom of this post, here are a few 1959 examples of the city of the future actually in place.

How Rockets and Satellites Work (1968)

After so many toys it is time to return to a few more basic books.

Taylor, John W.R. Illustrated by Wood, John W. Rockets and Satellites work like this (4th edition). London : Phoenix House / New York: Roy. (71 p.) 26 cm. Cloth, DJ. 1968.

 The first half of the book is devotes to the history of rockets and their military use.  The second half concentrates on the history of satellites and man in space.  It does cover the Apollo program and future Moon base plans. . "Science Works Like This" series. See 1959 1st edition.

I still like all kinds of space art so the article trying to create accurate drawings is very beautiful. each article see space just a little differently.

 All of these are carried over from the 1959 first edition. The future shown in them still had not arrived so it was fair to suggest they still may come.

Surprisingly, some of the drawings that end this 1968 book show parts of our possible future that still may come. There is active work on ion rockets as a "slow but steady" way to explore the solar system.

Space Rockets (1958)

Toys in Space #7

The last of my Toys in Space posts.

This punch-out is really the earlier version of the 1961 Astronauts book. It is amazing how much changed in 3 years as the space program became a reality. I like the choices you have of different rockets. We have a Vanguard rocket, A U.S. Army Jupiter C, an X-17 rocket plane, and a "Bonestell/von Braun" 3 stage Z-1 heavy lifter. In addition we have a circular space station, a moon lander and a Sputnik.

Space Rockets to Punch Out and Assemble. New York: Golden Press. 1958. Giant Funtime Books

There is the X-17 rocket-plane, a "logical" extension of what was guess to be the first manned vehicle to get into space. Next to it is the Vanguard rocket.

 Compare these astronauts to the Mercury ones in the the 1961 book. I suspect that adding the Sputnik was their way of recognizing the space race.

 Observe the "Manned Satellite top and body" for the circular space station in this one

 And notice the Explorer-type (Jupiter C) satellite in this one and the "US Army" on the rocket. There still was no NASA.