

Ask HN: Space exploration book recommendations? - lukejduncan

I&#x27;ve been on a biography and history kick lately and have a curiousity about space and manned&#x2F;unmanned space exploration.  I tend to enjoy learning best through narratives and personalities with supplemental Wikipedia searching - so bios or similar types of books work well for me.<p>Does anyone have any favorite books in the spirit of that (doesn&#x27;t have to be bio)?  What books geek you out about space exploration?
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mast
I enjoyed these two:

    
    
      * In Search of Planet Vulcan, by Richard Baum and William Sheehan
      * The Northern Lights, by Lucy Jago
    

Both are more about the scientists and astronomers than about NASA space
missions, but I found both very interesting.

If you prefer something a bit lighter, Men from Earth by Buzz Aldrin was
pretty good.

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mlwarren
Two from the perspective of mission control regarding mostly the early US
space program, the third about the Apollo program in general.

    
    
       Failure is not an Option - Gene Kranz
       Flight: My life in Mission Control - Chris Kraft
       A Man on the Moon - Andrew Chaikin

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chidevguy
I found Apollo, by Catherine Bly Cox and Charles Murray, quite interesting and
entertaining.

[http://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Catherine-Bly-Cox-
ebook/dp/B003...](http://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Catherine-Bly-Cox-
ebook/dp/B003KN3Z4M/)

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27182818284
_Entering Space_

Ranges in topics from Helium 3 fusion to mining the gas giants for fuel to the
implications of braking on spacecraft with solar sails.

