China's Space Program - From Conception to Manned Spaceflight by Brian Harvey

China's Space Program - From Conception to Manned Spaceflight by Brian Harvey

In October 2003 Yang Liwei made history as the first Chinese citizen in space, orbiting the globe 14 times in the Shenzhou 5. The Chinese space program has sometimes been called the last of the secret space programs.

From the reviews:

"..China's Space Program is perhaps the best single-volume summary of Chinese space efforts, at least among those written in English."

--Jeff Foust, THE SPACE REVIEW

Astronomy (February 2005)

Review by James Oberg, Former NASA Mission Controller

"… Harvey’s book gives any space-flight enthusiast a thorough overview of China’s space activities while comparing them to other nations’ efforts. What’s more, Harvey has succeeded in an even greater challenge: collecting disorganized and unrelated information and formulating it into coherent chapters that address themes, activities, and intentions in a lucid, logical sequence. This book goes well beyond cataloging what it covers. It has good stories, too. Harvey’s description of the early years of the Chinese program, when it was bedeviled by material shortages and political interference, is as dramatic as any other space-development saga in the world. He also makes excellent use of new biographical material about the father of the Chinese space program, Tsien Hsue Shen. … Harvey achieves a good blend of engineering descriptions and human-interest stories. Equally important, he gives the reader helpful guidance regarding reliability by describing how information on the Chinese program comes to light while other material concerning it remains buried in secrecy. Finally, Harvey uses obscure Chinese reports and speeches to map out the future options for this nation, now a major player in outer space. … China may well come to dominate some phases of human space exploration in the years ahead. If that comes to pass, this book will have told you how it happened."

"A super book by any measure. Anyone with an interest in rockets will find it a treat and similar in lay out and text as Patrick Moore’s Yearbook. 10 out of 10." (Tony O’ Connell, Astronomy & Space, May, 2005)

"An important book and essential reading for those interestedin space history, the history of technology, and the current state of military and civilian space technologies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates through professionals." (A.M. Strauss, CHOICE, Vol. 42 (5), January, 2005)

"Harvey’s book gives any space-flight enthusiast a thorough overview of China’s space activities while comparing them to other nation’s efforts. What’s more, Harvey has succeeded in an even greater challenge: collecting disorganized and unrelated information and formulating it into coherent chapters that address themes, activities, and intentions in a lucid, logical sequence. This book goes well beyond cataloging what it covers. It has good stories, too. … Harvey achieves a good blend of engineering descriptions … . Equally important, he gives the reader helpful guidance … ." (James Oberg, Astronomy, October, 2003)

"This is an expanded and revised version of a book first published in 1998 … . It is a well-written, detailed and impressive tale … ." (Paul Murdin, Times Higher Education Supplement, March, 2005)

"The original edition of this book was published in 1998 under a slightly different title … . Each chapter concludes with a summary and suggested further reading. There is also a listing of Chinese satellite launches, a chronology of significant events, a glossary, and a bibliography. All in all, this is probably the best one-stop source of information on the Chinese space programme to appear to date." (Liftoff, Issue 229, September/October, 2005)

Brian Harvey is a writer and broadcaster on spaceflight, with his first articles dating back to the early 1970s. He has written for Spaceflight, Orbit, Astronomy & Space, Hibernia, Quest, Astronomy Now and the Irish Independent. He has broadcast on the BBC World Service and contributed to television programs in Denmark (closed life support systems) and Australia (Japanese space program). His first book was Race into Space (Ellis Horwood,1988), a history of the Soviet space program. This was followed by other books for Praxis on the Russian space program, including the most recent Russian Space Probes, coauthored by Olga Zakutnyaya.
Harvey has written three histories of the Chinese space program, with one currently awaiting publication, and has also written histories of the European, Japanese and Indian space programs. He contributed a chapter to Dominic Phelan's Space Sleuths book, and most recently, a chapter on the Cosmos 5 mission was published in the Yuri Galperin 80 years memorial volume by the Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781852335663
ISBN 10	1852335661
Title	China's Space Program - From Conception to Manned Spaceflight
Author	Brian Harvey
Series	Springer Praxis Bks
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Springer London Ltd
Year published	2004-08-27
Number of pages	350
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.