On the back of the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing and to celebrate the freedom of access of information at NASA, Taschen released a special book focussing on some of the millions of images from the NASA archives. Originally released as a large format edition, I recently picked up a smaller pocket version of the volume.
Like all Taschen products, production values are really high and no expense is spared on the reproduction. A inner flap folds out with an illustration of the mission badges and also doubles as a temporary bookmark.
Despite its smaller size, it is full of excellent quality imagery, from recent discoveries such as New Horizon's exploration of Pluto and the interstellar visitor Oumuamua, which sped through the solar system in 2017 and was spotted by the PAN-STARRS observatory.
The book covers speculative designs for future missions and a comprehensive look at every major launch going back to the Mercury programmes.
The research and development aspect of NASA is fully explored with conceptual designs and artwork from the days of Werner Von Braun and the early period of the administration, before the advent of the space race.
Failures are covered as well as successes, such as the lifting body and hypersonic research aircraft such as the X-15.
The text is informative and quite exhaustive, covering the detail of the foundation of NASA and its activity through the sixties until the present day and the advent of the Shuttle and the launch of the Hubble telescope.
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