The Development of Propulsion Technology for U.S. Space-Launch Vehicles, 1926-1991

摘要

"Actually, it is rocket science!" Almost every space engineer has owned, at some point, a T-shirt with that slogan adorned with a field of equations, a rocket, or some other space motif. However, it never did seem quite . . . right. Why? In his excellent book, 25-year-veteran air and space historian J. D. Hunley argues that it's wrong because there is no such thing as rocket science. At least not "rocket science as a body of knowledge complete and mature enough to allow accurate predictions of problems" (p. 289). Hunley spends this volume arguing that the development of American launch vehicles has been a process of engineering and not science, as well as cataloging that development from the first tenuous experiments by Robert Goddard through the evolution of the space shuttle. His effort is the most comprehensive general history of the growth of American rocketrv we're likelv to see.