The first complete, up-to-date history of space probe exploration.

"WORLDS WITHOUT END: EXOPLANETS, HABITABILITY, AND THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY will present the scientific missions exploring exoplanets through the lens of habitability and our survival in the universe"--

Traces the history of space exploration from Ptolomy and Copernicus to the space shuttles and Mars missions of today, and explains the geography of space flight and the ways in which space travel was shaped by Cold War politics.

A report on humanity's imminent potential for living in space covers topics ranging from China's 2020 space station and the colonization of Mars to space-elevator innovations and the mapping of Earth-like exo-planets.

"Alone in a spartan black cockpit, test pilot Mike Melvill rocketed toward space. He had eighty seconds to exceed the speed of sound and begin the climb to a target no civilian pilot had ever reached. He might not make it back alive. If he did, he would make history as the world's first commercial astronaut. The spectacle defied reason, the result of a competition dreamed up by entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, whose vision for a new race to space required...

A collection of photographs taken by Commander Scott Kelly documenting his journey on the International Space Station, 250 miles above the earth.

"Escaping Gravity is former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver's firsthand account of how a handful of revolutionaries overcame the political patronage and bureaucracy that threatened the space agency. The success of Elon Musk's SpaceX, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, and countless other commercial space efforts were preceded by decades of work by a group of people Garver calls "space pirates." Their quest to transform...

"A charismatic young president issued the historic Moon landing challenge. This book, which greatly expands the companion PBS series, tell the stories of the visionaries--based on eyewitness accounts and newly discovered archival material--who helped America win the space race with the first lunar landing fifty years ago. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy proposed the nation spend twenty billion dollars to land a man on the Moon before the end of...