The mission-by-mission coverage leaves out nothing.

books:


	• Kennedy Space Center: Gateway to Space David West Reynolds Firefly Books, 2006 - 248 pages average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

The mission-by-mission coverage leaves out nothing.

NASA's Kennedy Space Center is the gateway to the stars for U.S. space efforts, and there's no better person to explore its history than an author who is an expert on space and space exploration. It's the only complete history of the Center and provides armchair readers with a complete tour of Center history, operations, and launch efforts. The mission-by-mission coverage leaves out nothing.

Great book

Easy to read and understand. It gives a comprehensive story of the Kennedy Space Center as well as the various missions NASA has undertaken. I understand now the different types of rockets and the history leading up to the Apollo 11 successful moon walk. This book was a page-turner. I could not put it down and read it all in one weekend.

for more information click here

An Interesting read but too many errors

Like David Shomper I too was involved in many of the events chronicled in David West
Reynolds's book and feel qualified to comment. While the book makes for an interesting read or
as a coffee table decoration (great photos) it had a disappointingly large number of errors that a
good technical review should have caught. I started writing them down but lost impetus as I progressed through the book and I'm sure I missed more. I did not duplicate David Shomper's comments except to expand on one of them. Hopefully, if I list those I did notice the author can incorporate changes in any subsequent editions.

Page 33 The Saturn V second stage was manufactured by North American Aviation, later North American Rockwell, at Seal Beach, California - not by Douglas.

Page 35 Photo - is not inside the VAB. It is on Pad 37.

Page 62 The lighthouse on the Cape was built in 1868 and moved to its current location in 1894. The 1847 lighthouse was torn down to provide the foundation for the new lighthouse.

Page 72 Photo - not sure where this photo was taken but it is definitely not at the Cape in 1953

Page 77 The author appears confused about the Redstone/Jupiter nomenclature, which is understandable - Von Braun's people used misleading names to facilitate range launch priorities at the Cape in the late 50's.

Basically the Redstone missile was a MRBM with a range of some 200 miles while the Jupiter missile was an IRBM with a range of nearly 2000 miles.

However when two solid upper stages were added to an extended length Redstone it was named the Jupiter C (the `C' standing for `composite reentry test vehicle). A modified Jupiter C with a fourth stage was named the Juno I. The Juno I naming occurred officially after the first Explorer launch so that its launch vehicle is usually incorrectly called a Jupiter C (or partially correct as a modified Jupiter C) in books and articles when it was, in reality, a Juno I.

When a larger booster was required the same three solid upper stages were added to a Jupiter first stage and it was named the Juno II. It was used for several subsequent space probes.

With all that understood the following corrections apply:

Jupiter C was not more powerful than the Thor and could not send a one-ton warhead 1850 miles down range. I believe the author was referring to the Jupiter IRBM.

Pad 26 was built for the Jupiter IRBM program not Jupiter C, which was basically still a Redstone, although the latter in its Redstone and Juno I versions were launched from Pad 26A.

The new name for the Explorer modified Jupiter C launch vehicle was Juno I, not Juno and not to be confused with the bigger more powerful Juno II.

Page 82 The Redstone launch vehicle used alcohol as its fuel, not kerosene.

Page 86 The Mercury Atlas 3 flight flew in April 1961, not May, and was destroyed by the Range Safety Officer after it failed to program. It was not in the clouds at the time - I was watching it from the roof of Hangar J.

Page 89 The blockhouse at Pad 14 did not have a second storey - the only Atlas blockhouse to have a second storey was at Pad 36 (Atlas - Centaur)

Page 131 Photo. There are no S-1B's in the picture - just S-1C's.

Page 137 Kerosene was only one of he fuels for the Saturn V - no mention is made of the massive liquid hydrogen tank that was required for the second and third stages.

Page 140 A typical failing of many write-ups on the Apollo program is to totally omit any mention of the ACE (automatic checkout Equipment) stations in the MSOB. It was from these control rooms that all spacecraft checkout, monitor and launch support for both the CSM and the LM were conducted. These stations were just yards from the astronaut quarters on the third floor. The only spacecraft representative in the LCC was a coordination link between the ACE Station and the LV test director.

Page 144 After previous sections that glorified Martin and Grumman the third paragraph on this page is totally unnecessary and demeaning of North American, a company that shouldered some of the major challenges of the Apollo program. The author should read "Angle of Attack", the story of Harrison Storms, to understand some of the immense issues involved and exactly what role NASA played in the design deficiencies that contributed to the Apollo 1 fire and S II design. The contribution of North American and its thousands of dedicated workers to the Apollo program deserves better than the snide comments in this paragraph.

Page 147 While the immensity of the sound and fury of a Saturn V launch is impressive 3 miles away I never felt any heat transfer across that distance and I watched several.

Page 148 Photo - The Saturn V did not launch Apollo 7. The photo is of the S IVB, the second stage of the Apollo 7 Saturn 1B launch vehicle. The fact that the panels on the spacecraft LM adaptor (or SLA in NASA terminology) are open but still attached show that it was Apollo 7, the only manned flight that the SLA panels were not disconnected and released. It should also be added that the SLA was attached to the Instrument Unit (or IU) built by IBM. This was a vitally important part of the stack and has been totally omitted in the book. It contained all the flight control electronics for the Saturn 1B and V vehicles. The IU was mounted atop the S IVB and was the last and uppermost constituent part of the booster.

Page 150 Another shot at North American. The Apollo 13 tank failure was more than a communication error and shouldn't be cavalierly placed at North American's doorstep.

Page 157 Since the Columbia accident NASA has always had a "rescue" shuttle in the flow.

Page 172 Photo caption - the Navaho shown is the only configuration that ever flew, the G 26, which used two Rocketdyne engines on its booster rocket, not three. It was definitely NOT the forerunner of the Redstone, which first flew three years earlier. However the Navaho Rocketdyne engines, using lox and kerosene, went on to form the basis for the engines that subsequently powered the Jupiter, Thor, Atlas and Saturn.

Page 174 The company North American Aviation became North American Rockwell in 1967 and finally Rockwell International in early 1973. To say that in the mid 70's "NAA was struggling to build the spacecraft" is incorrect both in the company name and the struggling aspect. Based on this and other comments I don't think the author had much respect for the company that built the X-15, the Apollo spacecraft, the Saturn S II and the shuttle orbiter! Maybe he had bad sources.

Page 181 The convoy does not off-load fuels and toxins on the runway.

Page 183 The windblown white sand at the White Sands Space Harbor should be more correctly identified as gypsum, not sand.

Page 186 Orbiter Processing Facility 3, or Hangar 3 as the author calls it, was originally built by the USAF at Vandenberg AFB. It was excessed after Challenger when the planned USAF shuttle flights from the west coast were cancelled and moved to KSC.

Page 186 Residual hypergolic propellants are not drained from their systems to safe the vehicle unless specific access or repair warrants draining. Residuals remain on board throughout the flow.

Page 194 Gaseous hydrogen and oxygen clouds do not spontaneously ignite when mixed.

Page 196 The sound suppression water flow commences at T-16 seconds, not 6.6 secs., and reaches peak flow of 900,00 gpm at T +9 seconds. It is exhausted in about 25 seconds.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2

An insider's history of the heart of America's space program from its earliest days.

NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center set the stage for the American adventure in space. Sprawled across 140,000 acres on Florida's Atlantic coast, the center has hosted the succession of rocket launches that have rewritten our knowledge of aeronautics and our very understanding of the nature of the universe.

Chosen because of its perfect location, with the wide Atlantic providing a buffer, Kennedy Space Center is now a major tourist attraction appealing to visitors of all ages.

This spaceport has served as the departure gate for every American space flight mission and the launching point of hundreds of other advanced scientific spacecraft. Kennedy Space Center will continue to make history as NASA embarks on new adventures in space exploration.

The book includes detailed information on:

The earliest development of rockets in the United States and Germany The development of rockets and their launch facilities The missile race and U.S.-Soviet rivalry to be first in space The great Apollo program and the race to the moon The shuttle program, the Space Station and the Hubble Telescope The future of space exploration.

Clearly written, meticulously researched and packed with more than 150 spectacular images, Kennedy Space Center is the only complete history of this important site.

(20061029)

for more information click here