Course Objective

This course will provide an overview of the history of spaceflight from ancient visions through the present.  The class will begin with a brief look at the ways that people in the ancient past took inspiration from the objects they could observe in the night sky, whether that concerned scientific observations or the first known science fiction account imagining a voyage to the Moon by Greek author Lucian of Samosata in the second century CE.  Then the class will discuss the effect of war in accelerating the progress of rocketry, particularly in Nazi Germany during World War II and in the two global superpowers of the Cold War era: the United States and the Soviet Union.  By the third week, the class will discuss the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957 and the frenzied response in the United States that followed over the forthcoming year, including the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).  Since the vast majority of space launches carried out since 1957 have been uncrewed, the class will discuss Earth orbiting satellites that have provided vital services for the human race and the probes that have left Earth orbit to explore the solar system.  But the class will then move onto the selection of the first American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts, who vied for supremacy aboard one, two, and three person capsules as the 1960s progressed.  But the class will not only explore what the spaceflights and the people involved in them accomplished.  It will also cover reflections of spaceflight in popular culture during the 1960s, such as the products that consumers bought, the television shows and movies they watched, or the tourist sites they visited.  It will cover the social dimensions of spaceflight, such as the participation of women and minorities and the reshaping of the southern United States into a high technology “Sunbelt” region.  From there, the class will move on to the triumph of the Apollo flights to the Moon.  Though the American conquest of the Moon ended after December 1972, future years featured more exciting developments.  The Americans sent three crews to their first space station, Skylab, in 1973, and another to link up with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in 1975.  The Soviets sent crews to a series of Salyut space stations in the 1970s and Mir beginning in 1986.  Meanwhile, the United States went in a dramatically different direction with the world’s first reusable spacecraft, the Space Shuttle.  The class will cover the accomplishments of the 135 voyages of this vehicle, as well as the tragic losses of Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003.  One additional session will focus on the International Space Station, the most complex engineering project in history that has linked former Cold War enemies since the 1990s.  From there, the class will move in a different direction by focusing on the probes that have explored the planets in recent years (building on the earlier session that focuses on the probes of the 1960s).  The space industry has never been simply a bipolar environment through all of this, so additional classes will focus on the nations of the European Space Agency, Canada, China, Japan, and India.  The class will conclude by taking students through the commercial revolution of the 21^st century, particularly focusing on the achievements of SpaceX in making possible a much higher launch rate than ever before possible and launching NASA astronauts into orbit since 2020.  Future plans to return humans to the Moon through the Artemis program and to voyage to Mars will also be discussed.  Through every topic, students will understand that spaceflight history matters in and of itself in that it has shaped engineering and scientific knowledge across the world.  But students will hopefully understand as well that spaceflight history does not exist in isolation from all of the other history they will study in college.  The field envelops vital areas such as international relations, race, gender, economics, popular culture, and more.

In addition to all of the presentations on the aforementioned topics, students will watch two movies in this class and hear from two guest speakers.  The first movie is called Spacewalker, the story of Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov making the first ever extravehicular activity aboard the Voskhod 2 mission in 1965.  The second movie is called First Man, the story of Neil Armstrong’s life from 1961 through his voyage to the Moon as Commander of Apollo 11 in 1969.  Students will also hear from a guest speaker from the Armstrong Air Space Museum in Wapakoneta, Ohio, who will take students through Neil Armstrong’s entire life from birth in 1930 to death in 2012.  Another guest speaker from Space Center Houston will take students through the exploration of Mars to date.     

Course Materials

Michael Collins, Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journeys.

Grading and Assignments

Grades will be based on ten criteria:
1) Essay 1: 50 points.
2) Exam 1: 50 points.
3) Film Guide 1: 20 points.
4) Exam 2: 50 points.
5) Film Guide 2: 20 points.
6) Essay 2: 50 points.
7) Exam 3 (Final Exam): 50 points.
8) Humy quizzes: 30 points (assessed across the semester).
9) Attendance: 10 points (assessed across the semester).

Essays

There are two essays for this course. The first will require you to choose any space
program from the 1950s to the present and write five pages making an argument about
that program. For instance, you might choose the Apollo program, research this topic,
and make an argument about the consequences of the program in facilitating knowledge
of the Moon’s geological history. This assignment will introduce students to a vital skill
required of professional historians: the ability to form an argument in writing, supported
by sources cited in the writing. The second will require you to read Michael Collins’s
book Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journeys and write a five-page book review that summarizes the events of the book and provides an evaluation of the value of the book.
This assignment will introduce students to another vital skill: the ability to evaluate
another author’s work and what it contributes to the body of literature on a subject. In
this case, Michael Collins’s book is among the most reflective memoirs written by an
astronaut from the Gemini and Apollo era and worthy of evaluation. Each essay will be
worth 50 points and will be due as an attachment on the course website.

Exams

There are three in-person multiple choice exams in this course, each containing 50
questions plus two extra credit questions (25 questions will be a choice of A/B/C/D and
the other 25 questions will be a choice of True or False). The exams will cover the
material in the presentations and there will be a study guide posted on the course website
prior to each exam. Each exam will be worth 50 points.

Film Guides

There are two film guides for this course. Filling out the film guides will require
watching the movies Spacewalker and First Man and filling out the questions that go
with them, then turning them in during class. Each film guide will be worth 20 points.

Humy Quizzes

There will be sixteen online quizzes in this course utilizing the website Humy
(https://www.humy.ai). You will have to log into your account on the course website,
click on the link for each quiz that I will post there, and answer the questions for the quiz
that corresponds to each week of the course. Each quiz will contain five questions that
supplement the presentations I give that week. For instance, during the second week you
will answer questions about ancient visions and launches. Once you answer the five
questions, you will receive a grade and you will be done with that quiz. I will check for
completion and will add 30 points to your grade as long as you have completed all of the
assigned quizzes for the semester.

Attendance

Attendance will be taken every class period. Students must either attend class or contact
the instructor to ensure required material is completed. At the end of the semester, I will
assess your attendance across the entire semester and will assign an attendance grade out
of 10 points. If you keep absences to a minimum, you will earn the full 10 points.

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Course Schedule

Week 1 (Humy Quiz #1)

Thursday, January 16: Course Introduction.

Week 2 (Humy Quiz #2)

Tuesday, January 21: Ancient Visions and Launches.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • William Burrows, This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age, 1998, Chapter 1.
  • Johannes Kepler, Somnium, 1634.
  • Lucian, Lucian’s True History, 160 CE.
  • Jules Verne, From the Earth to the Moon, 1865.

Thursday, January 23: Pioneering the Future in Space and War.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • William Burrows, This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age, 1998, Chapters 2-5.
  • David Clary, Rocket Man: Robert H. Goddard and the Birth of the Space Age, 2003.
  • Michael Neufeld, The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemunde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era, 1995.
  • Michael Neufeld, Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War, 2007.
  • Hermann Oberth, The Rocket Into Interplanetary Space, 1923.
  • Asif Siddiqi, The Rocket’s Red Glare: Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination, 1857-1957, 2010.
  • Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Selected Works of Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky, 2004.

Week 3 (Humy Quiz #3)

Tuesday, January 28: Breaking the Bonds of Earth: The First Launches to Earth Orbit.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • William Faherty, Florida’s Space Coast: The Impact of NASA on the Sunshine State, 2002.
  • Paul Dickson, Sputnik: The Shock of the Century, 2001.
  • Monique Laney, German Rocketeers in the Heart of Dixie: Making Sense of the Nazi Past During the Civil Rights Era, 2013.
  • Roger Launius, NACA to NASA to Now: The Frontiers of Air and Space in the American Century, 2022.
  • Asif Siddiqi, Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945-1974, 2000.

Thursday, January 30: Orbits for Humankind: The First Applications Satellites.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • William Burrows, Deep Black: Space Espionage and National Security, 1986.
  • Arthur Clarke, “Extra-terrestrial Relays,” pages 305-308 in Wireless World Magazine, 1945.
  • Dwayne Day, Eye in the Sky: The Story of the Corona Spy Satellites, 1998.
  • Richard Easton and Eric Frazier, GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones, 2013.
  • Anil Maini and Varsha Agrawal, Satellite Technology: Principles and Applications, 2007.

Week 4 (Humy Quiz #4)

Tuesday, February 4: Leaving Earth Behind: The First Lunar and Planetary Missions.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • Bruce Byers, Destination Moon: A History of the Lunar Orbiter Program, 1977.
  • Andrew Chaikin, A Passion for Mars: Intrepid Explorers of the Red Planet, 2008.
  • Jay Gallentine, Ambassadors From Earth: Pioneering Explorations With Unmanned Spacecraft, 2021.
  • Cargill Hall, Lunar Impact: The NASA History of Project Ranger, 1977.
  • Brian Harvey, Soviet and Russian Lunar Exploration, 2006.
  • Clayton Koppes, JPL and the American Space Program: A History of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 1982.

Thursday, February 6: Space Sailors: The First Astronauts and Cosmonauts.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Virgil “Gus Grissom, Walter Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Donald “Deke” Slayton, We Seven, 1962.
  • Slava Gerovitch, Voices of the Soviet Space Program: Cosmonauts, Soldiers, and Engineers Who Took the USSR Into Space, 2014.
  • Matthew Hersch, Inventing the American Astronaut, 2012.
  • Andrew Jenks, The Cosmonaut Who Couldn’t Stop Smiling: The Life and Legend of Yuri Gagarin, 2012.
  • Cathleen Lewis, Cosmonaut: A Cultural History, 2023.
  • Tyler Peterson, A Fire to be Lighted: The Training of American Astronauts From 1959 to the Present, 2017.
  • Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff, 1979.

Week 5 (Humy Quiz #5)

Tuesday, February 11: “Zero G and I Feel Fine”: Mercury and Vostok.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • Charles Alexander, James Grimwood, and Loyd Swenson, This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury, 1966.
  • Francis French and Colin Burgess, Into That Silent Sea: Trailblazers of the Space Era, 1961-1965, 2007.
  • Yuri Gagarin, Road to the Stars, 1962.
  • John Glenn with Nick Taylor, John Glenn: A Memoir, 1998.
  • Rex Hall and Dave Shayler, The Rocket Men: Vostok and Voskhod, 2001.
  • Chris Kraft, Flight: My Life in Mission Control, 2001.
  • Neal Thompson, Light This Candle: The Life and Times of Alan Shepard, America’s First Spaceman, 2004.

Thursday, February 13: “Sitting Up Here Playing Bridge Together:” Gemini and Voskhod.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • Eugene Cernan with Don Davis, The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America’s Race in Space, 1999.
  • Henry Dethloff, Suddenly, Tomorrow Came: The NASA History of the Johnson Space Center, 2013.
  • Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Gemini: A Personal Account of Man’s Venture Into Space, 1968.
  • Barton Hacker and James Grimwood, On the Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini, 1977.
  • Jeffrey Kluger, Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, The Untold Story, 2025.
  • James Oberg, Red Star in Orbit, 1981.
  • David Scott and Alexei Leonov, Two Sides of the Moon: Our Story of the Cold War Space Race, 2004.

Week 6 (Humy Quiz #6)

Tuesday, February 18-Thursday, February 20: Watch movie Spacewalker.

Week 7 (Humy Quiz #7)

Tuesday, February 25: Exam 1.

Thursday, February 27: Popular Culture.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • Michael Benson, Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece, 2018.
  • Keith Booker, Star Trek: A Cultural History, 2018.
  • Slava Gerovitch, Soviet Space Mythologies: Public Images, Private Memories, and the Making of a Cultural Identity, 2015.
  • Emily Margolis, Space Travel at 1G: Space Tourism in Cold War America, 2019.
  • David Meerman Scott and Richard Jurek, Marketing the Moon: The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program, 2014.
  • Margaret Weitekamp, Space Craze: America’s Enduring Fascination with Real and Imagined Spaceflight, 2022.

Week 8 (Humy Quiz #8)

Tuesday, March 4: Shaping Society.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • Erinn McComb, Gender and the Race for Space: Masculinity and the American Astronaut, 1957-1983, 2025.
  • Brian Odom and Stephen Waring, eds., NASA and the Long Civil Rights Movement, 2019.
  • Brian Odom and Stephen Waring, eds., NASA and the American South, 2024.
  • Richard Paul and Steven Moss, We Could Not Fail: The First African-Americans in the Space Program, 2015.
  • Margot Shetterly, Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, 2016.
  • Margaret Weitekamp, Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America’s First Women in Space Program, 2004.

Thursday, March 6: Tragedies and Triumphs: Apollo and Soyuz.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • Roger Bilstein, Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicle, 1980.
  • Francis French and Colin Burgess, In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965-1969, 2007.
  • Robert Kurson, Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon, 2018.
  • Tom Kelly, Moon Lander: How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module, 2001.
  • Ryan Walters, Apollo 1: The Tragedy That Put Us on the Moon, 2021.
  • David Woods, How Apollo Flew to the Moon, 2008.
  • Robert Zimmerman, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8: The First Manned Mission to Another World, 1998.

Spring Break: Monday, March 10-Friday, March 14

Week 9 (Humy Quiz #9)

Tuesday, March 18: “Magnificent Desolation:” Exploring the Lunar Surface.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • Douglas Brinkley, American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race, 2019.
  • Andrew Chaikin, A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts, 1994.
  • Michael Collins, Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journeys, 1974.
  • Roger Launius, Apollo’s Legacy: Perspectives on the Moon Landings, 2019.
  • John Logsdon, John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon, 2010.
  • Teasel Muir-Harmony, Operation Moonshot: A Political History of Project Apollo, 2020.
  • Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox, Apollo: The Race to the Moon, 1989.

Thursday, March 20: Guest Lecture: The Life of Neil Armstrong.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • James Hansen, First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, 2005.
  • James Hansen, Dear Neil Armstrong: Letters to the First Man From All Mankind, 2019.
  • James Hansen, A Reluctant Icon: Letters to Neil Armstrong, 2020.

Week 10 (Humy Quiz #10)

Tuesday, March 25-Thursday, March 27: Watch movie First Man.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • Josh Singer and James Hansen, First Man: The Annotated Screenplay, 2018.

Week 11 (Humy Quiz #11)

Tuesday, April 1: The First Orbital Outposts: Salyut, Skylab, and Mir.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • David Compton and Charles Benson, Living and Working in Space: A History of Skylab, 1983.
  • Ed Gibson, Space: Ever Farther, Ever Faster—Now!,” 2024.
  • David Harland, The Story of Space Station Mir, 2005.
  • David Hitt, Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story, 2008.
  • Grujica Ivanovich, Salyut—The First Space Station: Triumph and Tragedy (2008).
  • Valentin Lebedev, Diary of a Cosmonaut: 211 Days in Space, 1988.
  • David Shayler, Around the World in 84 Days: The Authorized Biography of Skylab Astronaut Jerry Carr, 2008.

Thursday, April 3: An Orbital Handshake: The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • Vance Brand, Flying Higher and Faster, 2015.
  • Edward Ezell and Linda Ezell, The Partnership: A NASA History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, 1978.
  • Glynn Lunney, Highways Into Space: The Early Years of Inventing the Mission Control Center, Achieving the First International Docking Mission & Deploying Skylab, The First U.S. Space Station, 2014.
  • Donald “Deke Slayton with Michael Cassutt, Deke!: U.S. Manned Space From Mercury to the Shuttle, 1994.
  • Tom Stafford with Michael Cassutt, We Have Capture: Tom Stafford and the Space Race, 2002.

Week 12 (Humy Quiz #12)

Tuesday, April 8: Exam 2.

Thursday, April 10: “What a Way to Come to California:” The Space Shuttle Era Begins.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • Amy Foster, Integrating Women into the Astronaut Corps: Politics and Logistics at NASA, 1972-2004.
  • David Hitt and Heather Smith, Bold They Rise: The Space Shuttle Early Years, 1972-1986, 2014.
  • Dennis Jenkins, Space Shuttle: Developing an Icon, 1972-2013, 2017.
  • Mike Mullane, Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut, 2006.
  • Valerie Neal, Spaceflight in the Shuttle Era and Beyond: Redefining Humanity’s Purpose in Space, 2017.
  • Diane Vaughan, The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA, 1996.
  • John Young with James Hansen, Forever Young: A Life of Adventure in Air and Space, 2012.

Week 13 (Humy Quiz #13)

Tuesday, April 15: “Wheels Stop:” Ending the Space Shuttle Era.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • Eileen Collins with Jonathan Ward, Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars: The Story of the First American Woman to Command a Space Mission, 2021.
  • Matthew Hersch, Dark Star: A New History of the Space Shuttle, 2021.
  • Rick Houston, Wheels Stop: The Tragedies and Triumphs of the Space Shuttle Program, 1986-2011.
  • Evelyn Husband, High Calling: The Courageous Life and Faith of Space Shuttle Columbia Commander Rick Husband, 2003.
  • Roger Launius, John Krige, and James Craig, eds., Space Shuttle Legacy: How We Did It and What We Learned, 2013.
  • Michael Leinbach with Jonathan Ward, Bringing Columbia Home: The Untold Story of a Lost Space Shuttle and Her Crew, 2018.
  • Michael Massimino, Spaceman: An Astronaut’s Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe, 2016.

Thursday, April 17: Off the Earth, For the Earth: The International Space Station.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • Clayton Anderson, The Ordinary Spaceman: From Boyhood Dreams to Astronaut, 2015.
  • TD Barnes, ISS: The International Space Station, 2024.
  • Gregory Chamitoff and Srinivas Rao Vadali, eds., Human Spaceflight Operations: Lessons Learned From 60 Years in Space, 2021.
  • Jay Chladek, Outposts on the Frontier: A Fifty-Year History of Space Stations, 2017.
  • Chris Hadfield, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything, 2013.
  • Scott Kelly with Margaret Lazarus Dean, Endurance: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery, 2017.
  • Gary Kitmacher, Ron Miller, and Robert Pearlman, Space Stations: The Art, Science, and Reality of Working in Space, 2018.

Week 14 (Humy Quiz #14)

Tuesday, April 22: Robotic Emissaries: Exploring the Moon and the Planets.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • Jay Gallentine, Infinity Beckoned: Adventuring Through the Inner Solar System, 1969-1989, 2016.
  • Wesley Huntress, Jr. and Mikhail Ya Marov, Soviet Robots in the Solar System: Mission Discoveries and Technologies, 2011.
  • Chris Impey and Holly Henry, Dreams of Other Worlds: The Amazing Story of Unmanned Space Exploration, 2013.
  • Roger Launius and Howard McCurdy, Robots in Space: Technology, Evolution, and Interplanetary Travel, 2012.
  • Bruce Murray, Journey Into Space: The First Thirty Years of Space Exploration, 1989.
  • Asif Siddiqi, Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958-2016, 2018.
  • Alan Stern, Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto, 2018.

Thursday, April 24: Guest Lecture: Mission to Mars.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • Buzz Aldrin, Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration, 2013.
  • Sarah Stewart Johnson, The Sirens of Mars: Searching For Life on Another World, 2020.
  • Steve Squyres, Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet, 2005.
  • Janet Vertesi, Seeing Like a Rover: How Robots, Teams, and Images Craft Knowledge of Mars, 2015.
  • Roger Wiens, Red Rover: Inside the Story of Robotic Space Exploration, From Genesis to the Mars Rover Curiosity, 2013.
  • Robert Zubrin, The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must, 1996.
  • Robert Zubrin, The New World on Mars: What We Can Create on the Red Planet, 2024.

Week 15 (Humy Quiz #15)

Tuesday, April 29: Global Ambitions.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • Andrew Godefroy, The Canadian Space Program: From Black Brant to the International Space Station, 2017.
  • Brian Harvey, Europe’s Space Program: To Ariane and Beyond, 2003.
  • Elizabeth Howell, Canadarm and Collaboration: How Canada’s Astronauts and Space Robots Explore New Worlds, 2020.
  • John Krige, et. al, A History of the European Space Agency, 1958-1987, 2000.
  • John Krige, et. al, NASA in the World: Fifty Years of International Collaboration in Space, 2013.
  • Tim Peake, Limitless: The Autobiography, 2020.
  • Stacia Zabusky, Launching Europe: An Ethnography of European Cooperation in Space Science, 1995.

Thursday, May 1: The Rise of Asia.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • Gary Covella, Beyond the Red Horizon: The Secret Rise of the Chinese Space Program, 2025.
  • James Hansen, “The Taikonaut as Icon: The Cultural and Political Significance of Yang Liwei, China’s First Space Traveler,” in Steven Dick and Roger Launius, eds., Societal Impact of Spaceflight, 2009.
  • Brian Harvey, China in Space: The Great Leap Forward, 2013.
  • Brian Harvey, Japan in Space: Past, Present, and Future, 2023.
  • Brian Harvey, et. al, Emerging Space Powers: The New Space Programs of Asia, the Middle East, and South America, 2010.
  • Gurbir Singh, The Indian Space Program: India’s Incredible Journey From the Third World Towards the First, 2017.
  • Subodhana Wijeyeratne, The Islands and the Stars: A History of Japan’s Space Programs, 2026.

Week 16 (Humy Quiz #16)

Tuesday, May 6: The Commercial Revolution.

• Additional Suggested Readings:
  • Michael Belfiore, Rocketeers: How a Visionary Band of Business Leaders, Engineers, and Pilots is Boldly Privatizing Space, 2007.
  • Eric Berger, Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX, 2021.
  • Eric Berger, Reentry: SpaceX, Elon Musk, and Reusable Rockets That Launched a Second Space Age, 2024.
  • Christian Davenport, Rocket Dreams: Musk, Bezos, and the Inside Story of the New, Trillion-Dollar Space Race, 2025.
  • Lori Garver, Escaping Gravity: My Quest to Transform NASA and Launch a New Space Age, 2022.
  • Joe Pappalardo, Spaceport Earth: The Reinvention of Spaceflight, 2017.
  • Erik Seedhouse and Sandra Haeusler, SpaceX: Making Commercial Spaceflight a Reality, 2013.

Week 17

Tuesday, May 13: Final Exam.

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Featured Image: Oct 2, 2009. Wikimedia Commons.