Between the Vietnam war, domestic turmoil and the Challenger disaster, the dream almost died. What a contrast with the heady days of the late 1960s and early 1970s when the Apollo missions (and others, not forgetting the Russian space effort which was the initial stimulus to the Kennedy administration) had us glued to our televisions and watching science fiction become fact. We chose to ignore the killjoys who told us that a greater scientific harvest could be had for much less investment in unmanned spacecraft. What has happened is that while manned spaceflight has slipped in US government priorities to a fraction of its former prominence, our lives have become dominated by space: global navigation, international communications and innumerable other applications all depend on artificial satellites. This represents an enormous fund of scientific and technical research and application, but Joseph A. Angelo Jr also reminds us in his introduction that “Space is inspirational.”
That is a fairly emotive background to a scientific and technical dictionary, but it works. It also puts into a human intellectual context the contents of this book. They cover everything there is to know about space science and technology in a factual, straightforward way, dealing with that science and technology in terms that anyone can understand. Facts and figures are given as necessary (and they are constantly necessary), but all is in clear terms with the technical vocabulary explained as necessary so that the interested layperson can understand and appreciate it. The text is supported throughout by photographs and diagrams, improving the clarity of the whole work still further. That is also achieved by the directness of the entries: this is a dictionary, not an encyclopaedia, so there are entries for some 3,000 terms with usually concise and precise definitions and explanations. At the same time, this is not a linguistic dictionary limiting itself to definitions of terms, but those terms are expanded and explained as appropriate. There is no index as the book relies on the inclusiveness of terms in a single alphabetical sequence, although finding is aided by some direct references and by more numerous cross‐references which are given at the end of many entries.
Coverage is broad, indeed comprehensive. It includes basic concepts (such as gravity and acceleration) and some necessary astronomy; applications are covered fully, as are historical events in space exploration and specific programmes (from V‐2 onwards; Challenger also has its own entry with the names of its crew members). Future programmes (Mars missions and Pluto Express, for example) are also included. The only aspect omitted is direct biographical entries: biographical information may be gleaned from appropriate subject entries. But it is all here: V‐2 and Viking, Apollo, Soyuz, and the rest, alongside technical information about the various kinds of spacecraft, the physics of space exploration (manned, unmanned or virtual) and the basic astronomy behind it all.
The author has numerous academic and technical qualifications and appointments in the US space programme, and among technical publications is also the author of The Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia (Reference Reviews 92/345). This latest work, for its comprehensive coverage, lucid and concise entries suitable for a non‐technical interested audience (and just as much for an interested professional scientific and technical audience), all in an attractively designed and produced volume, will help propagate his enthusiasm for his subject in the most appropriate way, by offering sound scientific and technical fact. This work will find a useful place in any relevant specialist collection as well as in general reference collections.
