Excellent and accessible overview of the history of NACA and NASA
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Michael Gorn has produced an attractive, readable, and accessible history of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration which is current up to the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Like many previous NASA general histories, Gorn discusses NASA's roots in the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Unlike most of those other histories, Gorn actually devotes a considerable amount of his book to NACA, discussing how the US Federal Government first got involved in aerospace research as well as the personalities such as Hugh Dryden who started out in NACA but came to have huge influence in NASA.
Gorn then discusses the dawn of the space age and the Cold War realities that drove America to form NASA and push for manned space exploration. Gorn details all the major manned programs, but except for Apollo 11, he provides only brief details on most missions.
Likewise, Gorn also discusses NASA's unmanned programs, but again, only in brief detail. Gorn does not discuss too much of the bureaucracy of NASA or its Administrators except in relation to the projects of their time.
Though there are more comprehensive histories of the American civil space program, most are more technical and dense for the average reader. They also do not have the wealth of interesting photographs that this book does. On this basis, I definitely recommend this book to those with even a passing interest in the space program.
C. Husing
USAF HQ Space and Missile Systems Center History Office 1997-1998
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A Welcome History of NASA
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Michael Gorn offers the educated reader and specialist alike an engaging historical account of NASA and the space age. NASA: The Complete Illustrated History is written a lively way, never avoiding complex technical themes, but unfailingly making these same themes highly accessible to the lay person. The reader learns that NASA became an extraordinary bureaucratic entity--to be remembered as the highly motivated federal agency that fulfilled John F. Kennedy's epic promise to land men on the Moon and assure their safe return before the decade of the 1960s ended. Richly illustrated, the book is a welcome addition to the historical literature on space exploration. Gorn paints the history of NASA on a broad canvas, introducing the reader to the pivotal pre-Sputnik incarnation of the organization, when NASA was known as NACA and played a creative role on the cutting edge of aviation design. Gorn's vivid narrative tells this story as a prelude to the dramatic era of space exploration in the turbulent decade of the 1960s. This comprehensive approach gives the book unique character, allowing the reader to comprehend the entire sweep of aerospace history. No less important, Gorn is attentive to the role of key personalities, some known and others lesser known to the general public. One of the most impressive dimensions of this beautifully designed book is the masterful way it matches images to the story line of the text. The most stunnning illustrations are the color images showcasing the Apollo and Shuttle flights: the reader acquires a keen appreciation for the technical sophistication of rocketry and the sheer size/drama of space flight. I enthusiastically endorse this book as a meaningful way to gain an appreciation of the origins, development, and impact of NASA on the twentieth century. Von Hardesty
National Air and Space Museum
Washington, D.C.
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