“Astronaut Envy?” The U.S. Military’s Quest for a Human Mission in Space

Before the beginning of the space age in 1957, the Department of Defense (DOD) of the United States sought to gain the mission and the technologies to carry out human operations in space. Even after 1958, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower made the decision to assign the human spaceflight mission to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), DOD champions continued to argue for a role for military astronauts. The military pursued several flight projects in the 1960s, achieved flight status for military astronauts on classified missions on the Space Shuttle in the 1980s, and has continued to advocate a human military mission in space as the twentieth century came to an end. All this happened despite an exceptionally weak rationale for military astronauts in space. While the DOD commitment to human spaceflight has moderated in the post-cold war era, there remains some who seek this activity as a military mission. This essay reviews the history of the military quest for human spaceflight, and suggests that a human military presence in space will come as other humans settle beyond Earth as has long been the case in terrestrial exploration and settlement. It points to the continuing difficulty of developing a rationale for human spaceflight, a difficulty that has come to a head in the early twenty-first century as the Space Shuttle is retired and plans for future vehicles remain unclear

Toward a history of the space shuttle. An annotated bibliography

This selective, annotated bibliography discusses those works judged to be most essential for researchers writing scholarly studies on the Space Shuttle's history. A thematic arrangement of material concerning the Space Shuttle will hopefully bring clarity and simplicity to such a complex subject. Subjects include the precursors of the Space Shuttle, its design and development, testing and evaluation, and operations. Other topics revolve around the Challenger accident and its aftermath, promotion of the Space Shuttle, science on the Space Shuttle, commercial uses, the Space Shuttle's military implications, its astronaut crew, the Space Shuttle and international relations, the management of the Space Shuttle Program, and juvenile literature. Along with a summary of the contents of each item, judgments have been made on the quality, originality, or importance of some of these publications. An index concludes this work

The Wright Brothers, Government Support for Aeronautical Research, and the Progress of Flight

The article, The Wright Brothers, Government Support for Aeronautical Research, and the Progress of Flight, was presented by Roger D. Launius at the Following the Footsteps of the Wright Brothers: Their Sites and Stories Symposium at Wright State University, September 28, 2001. In the article Launius discusses the slow development of the aircraft and how the United States lagged in further research and development of the air service

James Van Allen: The First Eight Billion Miles

Review of: "James Van Allen: The First Eight Billion Miles," by Abigail Foerstner

Reconsidering Sputnik: Forty Years Since the Soviet Satellite

This collection of essays explore several broad themes: the Soviet Union and Sputnik, space and the international Geophysical Year, the immediate ramifications of Sputnik in the United States, and the significance of Sputnik throughout the world

Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civilian Space Program

The documents selected for inclusion in this volume are presented in three chapters, each covering a particular aspect of the evolution of U.S. space exploration. These chapters address (1) the relations between the civilian space program of the United States and the space activities of other countries, (2) the relations between the U.S. civilian space program and the space efforts of national security organizations and the military, and (3) NASA's relations with industry and academic institutions