Complete online book
by T. A. Heppenheimer
NASA SP-4221
NASA History Series
1999
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Acknowledgements
Introduction
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Chapter 1. Space Stations and Winged Rockets
- Introduction
- The Collier’s Series
- Background to the Space Station
- Winged Rockets: The Work of Eugen Sanger
- Navaho and the Main Line of American Liquid Rocketry
- The X-15: An Airplane for Hypersonic Research
- Lifting Bodies: Wingless Winged Rockets
- Solid-Propellant Rockets: Inexpensive Boosters
- Dyna-Soar: A Failure in Evolution
Chapter 2. NASA’s Uncertain Future
- Technology Bypasses the Space Station
- Apollo Applications: Prelude to a Space Station
- Space Station Concepts of the 1960s
- Early Studies of Low-Cost Space Flight
- Two Leaders Emerge: Max Hunter and George Mueller
- NASA and the Post-Apollo Future
Chapter 3. Mars and Other Dream Worlds
- Introduction
- Nuclear Rocket Engines
- A New Administrator: Thomas Paine
- Space Shuttle Studies Continue
- Space Shuttle Policy: Opening Gambits
- Paine Seeks a Space Station
- Space Shuttles Receive New Attention
- Space Task Group Members Prepare Plans
- Agnew Leads a Push Toward Mars
Chapter 4. Winter of Discontent
Chapter 5. Shuttle to the Forefront
- Introduction
- The Air Force in Space
- The Air Force and NASA
- A New Shuttle Configuration
- Station Fades; Shuttle Advances
- The Space Shuttle Main Engine
Chapter 6. Economics and the Shuttle
- Introduction
- Why People Believed in Low-Cost Space Flight
- The Shuttle Faces Questions
- Change at NASA and the Bureau of the Budget
- The Fall of the Two-Stage Fully-Reusable Shuttle
Chapter 7. Aerospace Recession
Chapter 8. A Shuttle to Fit the Budget
- Introduction
- The Orbiter: Convergence to a Good Solution
- The Booster: Confusion and Doubt
- End Game in the Shuttle Debate
- TAOS: A New Alternative
- A Time to Decide