Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Foreword -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- Acronyms and Abbreviations -- 1. Space Dreams and War Drums -- 2. Tsiolkovsky and theBirth of Soviet Astronautics -- 3. Robert Goddard's Solitary Trail -- 4. Hermann Oberth andEarly German Rocketry -- 5. Von Braun, Dornberger,and World War II -- 6. Rockets, Balloons, and the Right Stuff -- 7. Korolev and the First ICBM -- 8. The Military-Industrial Complex -- 9. Sputniks and Muttniks -- 10. The Birth of NASA -- 11. Man in Space Soonest -- Epilogue: July 16, 1969 -- Sources -- Index.

Chris Gainor's irresistible narrative introduces us to pioneers such as Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert Goddard, and Hermann Oberth, who pointed the way to the cosmos and created the earliest wave of international enthusiasm for space exploration. It shows us German engineer Wernher von Braun creating the V-2, the first large rocket, which opened the door to space but failed utterly as the "wonder weapon" it was meant to be. From there Gainor follows the space race to the Soviet Union and the United States and gives us a close look at the competitive hysteria that led to Sputnik, satellites, space probes, and-finally-human flight into space in 1961. As much a story of cultural ambition and personal destiny as of scientific progress and technological history, To a Distant Day offers a complete and thoroughly compelling account of humanity's determined efforts-sometimes poignant, sometimes amazing, sometimes mad-to leave the earth behind.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.