I didn't know that if a girl broke your heart, another girl, virtuous at least in spirit, could mend it on the same night. And I didn't know that the enthalpy decrease in a converging passage could be transformed into jet kinetic energy if a divergent passage was added. The other boys discovered their own truths when we built our rockets, but those were mine."So begins Homer "Sonny" Hickam Jr.'s extraordinary memoir of life in Coalwood, West Virginia - a hard-scrabble little mining company town where the only things that mattered were coal mining and high school football and where the future was regarded with more fear than hope. Looking back after a distinguished NASA career, Hickam shares the story of his youth, taking readers into the life of the little mining town of Coalwood and the boys who would come to embody its dreams. In 1957 a young man watched the Soviet satellite Sputnik shoot across the Appalachian sky and soon found his future in the stars. 'Sonny' and a handful of his friends, Roy Lee Cook, Sherman O'Dell and Quentin Wilson were inspired to start designing and launching the home-made rockets that would change their lives forever.Step by step, with the help (and occasional hindrance) of a collection of unforgettable characters, the boys learn not only how to turn scrap into sophisticated rockets that fly miles into the sky, but how to sustain their dreams as they dared to imagine a life beyond its borders in a town that the postwar boom was passing by.A powerful story of growing up and of getting out, of a mother's love and a father's fears, Homer Hickam's memoir Rocket Boys proves, like Angela's Ashes and Russell Baker's Growing Up before it, that the right storyteller and the right story can touch readers' hearts and enchant their souls.A uniquely endearing book with universal themes of class, family, coming of age, and the thrill of discovery, Homer Hickam's Rocket Boys is evocative, vivid storytelling at its most magical.In 1999, Rocket Boys was made into a Hollywood movie named October Sky starring Chris Cooper, Jake Gyllenhaal and Laura Dern. October Sky is an anagram of Rocket Boys. It is also used in a period radio broadcast describing Sputnik 1 as it crossed the 'October sky'. Homer Hickam stated that "Universal Studios marketing people got involved and they just had to change the title because, according to their research, women over thirty would never see a movie titled Rocket Boys" so Universal Pictures changed the title to be more inviting to a wider audience. The book was later re-released with the name October Sky in order to capitalize on interest in the movie.

    This humorous tale describes how aliens, rather than visiting Earth to take over the planet, really visit to steal your pants.

    It places the basics of astronomy and the process of science within the grasp of introductory students. Package Universe, Eighth Edition with FREE Starry Night CD!use Package ISBN 0-7167-9564-7 SPLIT VOLUMESIn addition to the complete 28-chapter version of Universe, two shorter versions are also available:Universe: The Solar System, Third Edition(Chapters 1-16 and 28)0-7167-9563-9; w/FREE Starry Night CD, 0-7167-9562-0Universe: Stars and Galaxies, Third Edition(Chapters 1-8 which includes a two-chapter overview of the solar system) and Chapters 16-28)0-7167-9561-2; w/FREE Starry Night CD, 0-7167-9565-5

    The impressive result is this fascinating story--the first comprehensive account--of the space age. Here are the strategists and war planners; engineers and scientists; politicians and industrialists; astronauts and cosmonauts; science fiction writers and journalists; and plain, ordinary, unabashed dreamers who wanted to transcend gravity's shackles for the ultimate ride. The story is written from the perspective of a witness who was present at the beginning and who has seen the conclusion of the first space age and the start of the second.From the Hardcover edition.

    A space vessel called Schrodinger's Box discovers the creature, brings it back to life, and analyzes its intellectual and physical capabilities. It's not long before the scientists realize the creature is able to manipulate the make-up of objects, including organic matter, at a molecular level. The eyes of the scientific world are on Schrodinger's Box, but not everyone is pleased with the discovery. A group of terrorists attempts to intercept the ship and destroy it.

    Yuri Gagarin is one of the great heroes of the twentieth century, but the details of his life and the Russian space effort have been shrouded in secrecy: even the names of the engineers who worked with Gagarin were a mystery to the West for many years.Starman is the first book to tell the compelling story behind Gagarin's life and his audacious first flight into space aboard a converted nuclear weapon.He was once the most famous man in the world yet in his life, as in death, he was a man the world knew almost nothing about.

    Includes more than 500 photographs and illustrations from the archives of NASA, Life magazine, and from the collections of the astronauts themselves. Introduction by Tom Hanks.

    When the Congress created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1958, it charged NASA with the responsibility "to contribute materially to . . . the expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space" and "provide for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and the results thereof." NASA wisely interpreted this mandate to include responsibility for documenting the epochal progress of which it is the focus. The result has been the development of a historical program by NASA as unprecedented as the task of extending man's mobility beyond his planet. This volume is not only NASA's accounting of its obligation to disseminate information to our current generation of Americans. It also fulfills, as do all of NASA's future-oriented scientific-technological activities, the further obligation to document the present as the heritage of the future. The wide-ranging NASA history program includes chronicles of day-to-day space activities; specialized studies of particular fields within space science and technology; accounts of NASA's efforts in organization and management, where its innovations, while less known to the public than its more spectacular space shots, have also been of great significance; narratives of the growth and expansion of the space centers throughout the country, which represent in microcosm many aspects of NASA's total effort; program histories, tracing the successes - and failures - of the various projects that mark man's progress into the Space Age; and a history of NASA itself, incorporating in general terms the major problems and challenges, and the responses thereto, of our entire civilian space effort. The volume presented here is a program history, the first in a series telling of NASA's pioneering steps into the Space Age. It deals with the first American manned-spaceflight program: Project Mercury. Although some academicians might protest that this is "official" history, it is official only in the fact that it has been prepared and published with the support and cooperation of NASA. It is not "official" history in the sense of presenting a point of view supposedly that of NASA officialdom - if anyone could determine what the "point of view" of such a complex organism might be. Certainly, the authors were allowed to pursue their task with the fullest freedom and in accordance with the highest scholarly standards of the history profession. They [vi] were permitted unrestricted access to source materials and participants. Furthermore, they have with humility and some courage attempted to document what emerges as a complex accounting of the purposes of science, technology, and public funding in a challenging new area of human endeavor. Some classical historians may deplore the short lapse of time between the actual events and the historical narration of them. Others may boggle at the mass of full documentary sources with which the Project Mercury historians have had to cope. There are offsetting advantages, however. The very freshness of the events and accessibility of their participants have made possible the writing of a most useful treatise of lasting historical value. Future historians may rewrite this history of Project Mercury for their own age, but they will indeed be thankful to their predecessors of the NASA historical program for providing them with the basic data as well as the view of what this pioneering venture in the Space Age meant to its participants and to contemporary historians. 558 pages and over 40 photos and illustrations. Hyperlinked contents for easy navigation. Includes a Project Mercury introduction and overview by John A. Greene.

    Astronauts never jump in space. They usually drink out of straws, and they lift tons of equipment as if it were light as air. Find out more in this information-packed voyage into space. This nonfiction picture book is an excellent choice to share during homeschooling, in particular for children ages 4 to 6. It’s a fun way to learn to read and as a supplement for activity books for children.This is a Level 2 Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science title, which means the book explores more challenging concepts for children in the primary grades and supports the Common Core Learning Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) standards. Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out is the winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Science Books & Films Prize for Outstanding Science Series.

    For the first time, this book offers astrologers: Paran Maps and Star Phases for over 60 stars; new insights into the natal use of fixed stars, as well as their use in mundane astrology; extensive appendices of Heliacal Rising and Acronychal Setting--graphs and tables so that, for any given location, the dates of these risings and settings can be found/ a list of 176 stars with their 21st century Ptolemaic precessed positions versus their commonly--considered positions based on Ulugh Beg's methods.

    They examine life on Earth, an issue which concerns all major religions, from two different starting points: the religious Buddhist and the natural science of the astronomer, largely concerned with physics.They discuss the use of natural science in its exploration of the physical world, its treatment of psychology and states of consciousness, and Buddhist ideas of cosmology; and how these concepts are in tune with each other. They also debate reductionism, one of the key factors that distinguishes the practice of scientific investigation against the pacifist, holistic and ecological world view that is inherent in Buddhism and its underlying philosophy.In the last chapter, the two protagonists discuss key issues of today and how they relate to these tenents: nuclear arms, ecology, AIDS, youth and education, the family, democracy, human rights, suicide, abortion, genetic engineering and organ transplants.

    Inspired by renowned author, Eudora Welty, and her stories of growing up in Mississippi, Ms. Carpenters words celebrate the special love shared between a father and a daughter and how lifes magical moments remain with us throughout our lives. Like an old tattered scrapbook overflowing with remembrances of days past, this touching story and Dan Andreasens stunning illustrations stand as a timeless tribute to the beauty of lifes memories and that night so long ago when Halleys comet soared through the sky.

    Sit with me on the woodpile as he tells a tale of faith, hope, or love."In this extraordinary collection, Charlotte Jefferies and her father Price, a former slave, introduce us to twelve best loved Bible tales, from Genesis to Daniel, and reveal their significance in the lives of African Americans--and indeed of all oppressed peoples.When Charlotte wants to understand the cruel injustices of her time, she turns to her father. Does the powerful slaveholder, Mr. Sam Riley, who seems to own all that surrounds them, also own the sun and moon? she wonders. Price's answer is to tell the story of Creation. How can God allow an evil like slavery to exist? she asks. Price responds by telling the story of the Hebrews' Exodus -- and shows Charlotte that someday their people, too, will be free.With exquisite clarity, Patricia and Fredrick McKissack and James Ransome -- a Newbery Honor winner and all Coretta Scott King Award winners -- brilliantly illuminate the parallels between the stories of the Jews and African-American history. Let My People Go is a triumphant celebration of both the human spirit and the enduring power of story as a source of strength.Our hope is that this book will be like a lighthouse that can guide young readers through good times and bad....The ideas that these ancient stories hold are not for one people, at one time, in one place. They are for all of us, for all times, everywhere.--from the Authors' Note to Let My People Go

    This book includes practical information on home astronomy and buying and using equipment.

    In 1963, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, itself only a few years old, commissioned the imagination of a diverse group of American artists and invited them to become eyewitnesses to U.S. space exploration efforts. Their assignment: to broaden public understanding of space-related events through their artistic interpretations. It was the beginning of a legacy, and today, the NASA Art Program continues to be an official and important part of NASA activities.

    The majority of existing research emphasizes the impersonality of such erotic interaction and underscores the element of danger involved. While never denying the danger of anonymous public sex in the age of AIDS, the contributors to "Public Sex/Gay Space" go beyond narrow moralisms about the need to regulate unsafe sexual practices to discuss the significance of sex in public. William Leap has brought together contributions from such fields as anthropology, sociology, literary criticism, and history to reinvigorate the discussion on this issue, with twelve essays providing a more nuanced portrait of why public sexual activity is such an integral part of gay culture. The authors present rich ethnographic snapshots of male sex in public places--many drawn from interviews with participants or, in some instances, the authors' personal experiences.Contributors investigate a broad cultural spectrum of gay sexual space and activity: in a public park in contemporary Hanoi, at the beachfront community of New York's Fire Island, and in nineteenth-century Amsterdam, for example. They explore issues such as visibility and secrecy, as well as economic status and social class, and interrogate the historical trajectories through which certain locations come to be favored sites for sexual encounters. Together, they offer insight into the ways in which public sex calls into question the very line that divides "public" from "private."

    An illustrated account of the history of exploration of the planet Mars incorporating photographs taken from the Pathfinder and Global Surveyor space missions.

    Look to the stars. Although Astronomy has been around for more than 5,500 years, astronomers say that we've learned more than 90% of what we know about the universe in just the last 50-and much of that in the last decade! The Complete Idiot's Guide(r) to Astronomy, Fourth Edition, continues to be the most comprehensive introduction to the topic, covering all the latest advances and discoveries, including: • The demotion of Pluto and promotion of Ceres as planetary objects • Breakthrough evidence of recent water flow on Mars • New developments in asteroid-tracking programs • New information on the nature and shape of our universe • Mind-bending theories concerning multiple universes • Information on the latest telescopes As a bonus, this book includes a fascinating CDROM with more than 200 of the most spectacular images from NASA, star maps, and other tools for backyard astronomers.