"Space Flight - The Coming Exploration of the Universe" by Lester Del Rey
Just finished reading "Space Flight - The Coming Exploration of the Universe" by Lester Del Rey, published by The Golden Library of Knowledge back in 1959.
As frequent readers of my reviews here on Facebook, Goodreads, and other social media platforms know, several years ago I began what I have dubbed my "Great Re-Reading of Favorite Books of My Youth" project which not only includes my favorite fiction books and favorite non-fiction books of my youth.
"Space Flight - The Coming Exploration of the Universe" by Lester Del Rey was one of those books which I remembered and enjoyed reading. I remember seeing it in the library of the Tarawa Terrence II Elementary School Grades 1-4, which I attended back at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and I did check it out and read it. Now in fairness to the Camp Lejeune School System, I never had any teachers complain to Mom and Dad about what I was reading at Tarawa Terrence. The teachers and principal at Tarawa Terrence II Elementary School had two "encounters" with Mom - one involving an anti-Semitic teacher who was promptly fired, that wouldn't happen today, and the ending of a gymnastics program when I broke my collar bone after a teacher forced me to do a back flip with a half twist despite me repeatedly telling her that I didn't want to do it. That teacher also got fired and the gymnastic program ended there for several years.
Curiously Lester Del Rey predicted the use of reusable spacecraft, but not how the initial exploration of space exploration would begin - he failed to predict the Space Race to the moon. He did predict refueling of rockets in low Earth orbit, but oddly stated that the moon would only be explored once since it had nothing to offer. Now to be fair, it was not known at the time of the resources that the moon has and how those resources would be of value to future manned exploration and colonization. Again oddly, Lester Del Rey for some reason did not think that the moon would be colonized - a rather interesting approach for a science fiction writer.
An interesting look at space exploration in the early age of the Space Race.
Well written, and intriguing look at the thoughts of the time.
Recommended.
Three Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/PLANETS-Worlds...
As frequent readers of my reviews here on Facebook, Goodreads, and other social media platforms know, several years ago I began what I have dubbed my "Great Re-Reading of Favorite Books of My Youth" project which not only includes my favorite fiction books and favorite non-fiction books of my youth.
"Space Flight - The Coming Exploration of the Universe" by Lester Del Rey was one of those books which I remembered and enjoyed reading. I remember seeing it in the library of the Tarawa Terrence II Elementary School Grades 1-4, which I attended back at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and I did check it out and read it. Now in fairness to the Camp Lejeune School System, I never had any teachers complain to Mom and Dad about what I was reading at Tarawa Terrence. The teachers and principal at Tarawa Terrence II Elementary School had two "encounters" with Mom - one involving an anti-Semitic teacher who was promptly fired, that wouldn't happen today, and the ending of a gymnastics program when I broke my collar bone after a teacher forced me to do a back flip with a half twist despite me repeatedly telling her that I didn't want to do it. That teacher also got fired and the gymnastic program ended there for several years.
Curiously Lester Del Rey predicted the use of reusable spacecraft, but not how the initial exploration of space exploration would begin - he failed to predict the Space Race to the moon. He did predict refueling of rockets in low Earth orbit, but oddly stated that the moon would only be explored once since it had nothing to offer. Now to be fair, it was not known at the time of the resources that the moon has and how those resources would be of value to future manned exploration and colonization. Again oddly, Lester Del Rey for some reason did not think that the moon would be colonized - a rather interesting approach for a science fiction writer.
An interesting look at space exploration in the early age of the Space Race.
Well written, and intriguing look at the thoughts of the time.
Recommended.
Three Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/PLANETS-Worlds...
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