Space Discovery

In August 1968 NASA made a bold decision: In just 16 weeks, the United States would launch humankind's first flight to the moon. Only the year before, three astronauts had burned to death in their spacecraft, and since then the Apollo program had suffered one setback after another. Meanwhile, the Russians were winning the space race, the Cold War was getting hotter by the month, and President Kennedy's promise to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade seemed sure to be broken.

When Apollo 11 touched down on the Moon’s surface in 1969, the first man on the Moon became a legend. In First Man, author James R. Hansen explores the life of Neil Armstrong. Based on over 50 hours of interviews with the intensely private Armstrong, who also gave Hansen exclusive access to private documents and family sources, this "magnificent panorama of the second half of the American twentieth century" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) is an unparalleled biography of an American icon.

In the run-up to departure, the Etheric Academy goes through some changes as the students get a taste of the future awaiting them after graduation. The classes are split, and new friendships form as Tina, Ron, Yana, Maxim, and Nestor take their first steps toward adulthood. A visit to Earth is in the cards for Tina, Ron, and Maxim, but is it really a good idea to let the kids go down to the mudball again? Jean Dukes is left with no choice when sabotage forces a shutdown at an important TQB facility in the UK.

Human exploration of Mars is the most ambitious and exciting scientific goal of the 21st century. Few people know as much about this fascinating planet as Dr. Larry Crumpler. As one of the long-term planning leads for the Mars Exploration Rover Project, he helped control the daily communications between NASA and the rovers.

On June 6, 1761, the world paused to observe a momentous occasion: the first transit of Venus between the earth and the sun in more than a century. Through that observation, astronomers could calculate the size of the solar system - but only if they could compile data from many different points of the globe, all recorded during the short period of the transit. Fortunately, transits of Venus occur in pairs: eight years later, the scientists would have another opportunity to succeed.

Travelling at almost 18,000 miles per hour - 10 times faster than a rifle bullet - Yuri Gagarin circles the globe in just 106 minutes. From his windows, he sees the Earth as nobody has before, crossing a sunset and a sunrise, crossing oceans and continents, witnessing its beauty and its fragility. While his launch begins in total secrecy, within hours of his landing, he has become a world celebrity - the first human to leave the planet. Beyond tells the thrilling story behind that epic flight on its 60th anniversary.

Jules has recently graduated as the youngest Gatekeeper in Academy history and takes residence on her father's newly appointed ship, Light. Together they must escort Brik, a being from the long-deserted world of Sterona, to his people's distant home. The trek won't be easy, but for the Parkers, nothing ever is.

Discovery & Destruction In the electrifying second installment of the Galactic Travelers series, Frank Bryant returns to his home planet, now a bustling urban center transformed by human expansion. As a key figure in the Wormhole Initiative, Frank is immediately thrust into turmoil when his team comes under attack on their research station. Frank’s homecoming is bittersweet. While he reconnects with family and revisits his childhood haunts, he cannot escape the looming crisis. Powerful corporations and government agencies vie for control of the Initiative’s groundbreaking discoveries, ...

Too often, textbooks obscure the beauty and wonder of outer space with tedious discourse that even Galileo would oppose. Astronomy 101 cuts out the boring details and lengthy explanations, and instead, gives you a lesson in astronomy that keeps you engaged as you discover what's hidden beyond our starry sky. From the Big Bang and nebulae to the Milky Way and Sir Isaac Newton, this celestial primer is packed with hundreds of entertaining astronomy facts you won't be able to get anywhere else.

This exciting second book in the Lost series tells the incredible true story of the doomed Apollo 13 moon mission that nearly ended in disaster. On April 11, 1970, the Apollo 13 space shuttle set off for the third intended American moon landing. Two days later and 200,000 miles from Earth, disaster struck when an oxygen tank exploded onboard the spacecraft, leaving three astronauts with only one goal: to make it home alive.

In the vast unknown of space, one ship’s journey will change the fate of the universe. In the middle of the 21st century, humanity took its first step toward the stars. A brilliant scientist unlocked the secret to faster-than-light travel, leading to the creation of The Horizon—the most advanced ship ever built. Its mission: to explore the furthest reaches of the galaxy, uncover its mysteries, and safeguard the fragile balance of the cosmos. But as The Horizon and its diverse crew venture deeper into uncharted space, they encounter more than just new worlds. They face ancient ...

New Continent is an action-packed military Sci-Fi thriller. This real-time futuristic adventure is both a space opera and a hard science fiction novel. Join the crew of the New Continent as they race against time that is waged in this annihilated world where microbiological investigations, encrypted messages, and space battles intertwine with the epic fast action scenes of a marine platoon. Follow the trail of deadly bacteria and alien attacks of the past. The New Continent, the only remaining starship in the fleet, was somehow lost in the galaxy for over five centuries. Approaching the ...

Space is filled with wondrous and mind-boggling objects. New discoveries are made every year. This book has 199 trivia questions to test your memory. But you don’t have to worry if you get stumped. The answer is revealed and includes 557 out-of-this-world facts. This book covers a broad spectrum of thought-provoking questions, such as:

Mutiny in Space The Confederation was losing the war. World after world had been invaded. Seared of all life. As powerful as the fleet was, it simply could not be everywhere. The mission behind enemy lines was an act of desperation. Captain Windrow and the CSS Intrepid dispatched to gather intelligences. What would happen then was classified. The Admiralty had not shared its plans with her. She could only guess. She did know she had a Shoei warship parked in one of the Intrepid's unused bays. Their old enemy putting ancient enmities aside to work together. Or so she believed. They had plans...

Into the dark The warship was old. A giant. 7 miles long. 5 wide. The most powerful warship humanity had ever designed. Now it was abandoned. Cold. Dark. A mausoleum. Its crew preferring to die at their posts to capture by the enemy. For decades, it had been left in orbit. No one dared go near it. Stepping aboard was an act of desperation. Russou was dying. It was a harsh desert of a world. Few natural resources, the only water a tepid brine. There are fewer people every year. The scattered cities fighting back the dust that filled their streets every night. A battle they were destined to ...

‘It didn’t matter that they were now three miles beyond their target site, that communications were dropping out and that they were running low on fuel. All that mattered to Neil as he searched for a safe spot to land was that boulders littered the surface below. “Thirty seconds,” called mission control. In truth, the flight controllers were now no more than spectators, just like everybody else. No more needed to be said. It was down to Armstrong

Some things were never meant to be found This was as far as Eli Massen could go to escape his former life. So far from the sun, it was little more than a speck of light in the sky. A good place to hide things. Things no one was ever supposed to find. The Shatter. All that remains of two moons slammed into each other millennia ago. Leaving nothing behind but a ring of rubble orbiting the gas giant, Obitron. A dangerous place to be, but lucrative for those brave - or foolish - enough to venture there. Guiding the mineral rich fragments into the Maw for processing. Massen did not consider ...

Master storyteller Ben Bova continues his multi-volume "Grand Tour" saga chronicling humanity's exploration of near space with Titan, a fast-paced thriller focused on the first manned mission to the Solar System's most intriguing world. Skillfully blending high drama, passionate characters, and daring speculation with the latest discoveries from the current Cassini/Huygens probe of Saturn's moon, Bova has crafted a heart-stopping tale of epic adventure on mankind's next frontier.

Breaking All The Rules: The Inside Story of the New Race traces the origins of a second Space Race that began at the end of the original 1960s US-Soviet space race and eventually led to SpaceX and the explosive growth in commercial space being seen today. The story covers how this revolution began with a band of misfit engineers and scientists and the inside story of how this was eventually ignited with the money and vision of billionaires such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy proposed the nation spend $20 billion to land a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. Based on eyewitness accounts and newly discovered archival material, Chasing the Moon reveals the unknown stories of the fascinating individuals whose imaginative work across decades culminated in America’s momentous achievement. More than a story of engineers and astronauts, the moon landing - now celebrating its 50th anniversary - grew out of the dreams of science fiction writers, filmmakers, military geniuses, and rule-breaking scientists.