To Reach the High Frontier: A History of U.S. Launch Vehicles

Military Review,  March-April, 2004  by Herman Reinhold

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TO REACH THE HIGH FRONTIER: A History of U.S. Launch Vehicles, Roger D. Launius and Dennis R. Jenkins, eds., University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, 2002, 519 pages, $49.95.

What is the space shuttle's future? How will NASA recover from the February 2003 space shuttle disaster? Are the answers to these questions hidden in the past?

To Reach the High Frontier: A History of U.S. Launch Vehicles describes the history and the tragedies and triumphs of NASA and the military. The book details how science fiction has turned into reality. The heroes are the scientists, inventors, designers, project managers, and visionaries who saw the potential of rockets. The biggest hero is President John F. Kennedy, whose national goal of sending a man to the moon and back energized the development of rockets and encouraged civilian and military cooperation.

This well-footnoted book details the history of U.S. rockets and propellants from World War II to modern space flights when there were amazing advances in fuels, engines, targeting, materials, and rocket bodies; however, the high cost of these developments forced the space program to develop a reusable platform--the space shuttle.

The space shuttle is America's primary vehicle into space for the near future. The best way to help NASA recover from the latest disaster is to have a goal that can again inspire and captivate the Nation into looking even further into space.

MAJ Herman Reinhold, USAF,

Yokota Airbase, Japan.

COPYRIGHT 2004 U.S. Army CGSC
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning