Escaping the Bonds of Earth: The Fifties and the Sixties (Springer Praxis Books) - Tapa blanda

From the reviews:

"Escaping the Bonds of Earth is a comprehensive account of human space exploration, from the early planning phases in the late fifties ... . The book describes the space rivalry not only between the two opposing nations, but also within the US space program itself. ... Escaping the Bonds of Earth is not only enjoyable and educational to read, but would be a great addition to anyone’s space exploration library. ... quality of this work would make it an excellent text for many history courses." (Stephen Adamczyk, National Space Society, September, 2009)

To commemorate the momentous 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s pioneering journey into space on 12th April 2011, a series of five books – to be published annually – will explore this half century, decade by decade, to discover how humanity’s knowledge of flying, working and living in space has changed. Each volume will focus not only upon the individual missions within ‘its’ decade, but also upon the key challenges facing human space exploration at specific points within those 50 years: from the simple problems of breathing and eating in space to the challenges of venturing outside in a pressurised spacesuit and locomotion on the Moon.

The first volume of this series will focus upon the 1960s, exploring each mission from April 1961 to April 1971 in depth: from the pioneering Vostok flights to the establishment of the first Salyut space station and from Alan Shepard’s modest sub-orbital ‘hop’ into space to his triumphant arrival at the Moon’s Fra Mauro foothills almost a decade later.