Stepping Stones to the Stars - Softcover

Stepping Stones to the Stars is the story of manned spaceflight from its inception to the era of the Space Shuttle. It begins with a short history of the evolution of the rocket, before describing the first manned rocket flights by both the Americans and the Russians. There is also the little-known story of what is thought to be the earliest manned rocket flight, said to have taken place in 1933 on the island of Rugen in the Baltic under the control of the German War Ministry. The story continues through Yuri Gagarin becoming the first person in space and Neil Armstrong's `giant leap for mankind' to the first space stations, Skylab, Salyut and Mir. With the development of the Shuttle, the USA moved ahead in the `space race,' but the Americans and Russians soon realised that it was easier to co-operate than compete, and the two nations began to work together for the first time. Terry C. Treadwell's book is a non-technical history of human spaceflight, that tells the exciting and dramatic story of how we took our early steps towards the stars.

Terry C. Treadwell is the author of German Fighter Aces of World War Oneand Ironworks: The Story of Grumman and Its Aircraft, as well as articles in magazines such as Foundation, the magazine of the Smithsonian Institution. Henry Hartsfield is a retired United States Air Force officer and a former NASA astronaut who logged more than 480 hours in space.