1962. The Cold War heats up as the space race begins. And one scientist, living under house arrest in Chinese-controlled Tibet, holds the key to victory.

"Discover the thrilling side of the history of the space race in this fact-tastic, nonfiction Level 3 Ready-to-Read, part of a series about the secrets of American History! Did you know that you can't bring a sandwich on a spaceship? Or that a group of people who had lost their hearing played an important role in the race to send astronauts to the moon? Find out about those true stories and more in this book about the space race of the 1950s and 1960s."--...

This is the journey of Laika, the abandoned puppy destined to become Earth's first space traveler. With the blending of fact and fiction, this story intertwines three compelling lives. Along with Laika, there is Korolev, a driven engineer at the top of the Soviet space program and Yelena, the lab technician responsible for Laika's health and life.

The Apollo missions marked the first time human beings left Earth's orbit and visited another world. Launius surveys a wide range of viewpoints and narratives, both positive and negative, surrounding the program. These include the argument that Apollo epitomizes American technological-- and political-- progress; technological and scientific advances garnered from the program; critiques from both sides of the political spectrum about the program's...

As the United States raced against Russia to put a man in space, NASA found untapped talent in a group of African-American female mathematicians that served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history. Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Johnson crossed all gender, race, and professional lines while their brilliance and desire to dream big, beyond anything ever accomplished before by the human race, firmly cemented...

"Find out all about NASA in this out-of-this-world addition to the What Was? series. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, better known as NASA, began in 1958. With its creation, the United States hoped to ensure it won the space race against the Soviet Union. Author Sarah Fabiny describes the origins of NASA, the launching of the Apollo program that landed the first human on the moon, and the many missions and discoveries that have taken...

"While there are many biographies of John F. Kennedy and numerous accounts of the early years of US space efforts, there has to date been no comprehensive account of how the actions taken by JFK's administration have shaped the course of the US space program over the last 45 years. This book, based on primary source material and interviews with key participants, is such an account. It tells the story of how JFK, only four months in office, decided...

Chasing the moon reimagines the race to the moon for a new generation, upending much of the mythology surrounding the effort. The series recasts the Space Age as scientific innovation, political calculation, media spectacle, visionary impulses and personal drama. Utilizing overlooked and lost archival material, the film features a cast of characters who played key roles in these historic events.

"When Mary Jackson was growing up, she thought being an engineer was impossible for her. Why? After all, she was fantastic at math and science. She worked really hard to learn all she could in school. Why did this smart little girl think she couldn't be an engineer? Elementary aged readers explore America's history of segregation through the life of Mary Jackson, who overcame challenges to become the first African American women to work at NASA! In...

Explores the previously uncelebrated but pivotal contributions of NASA's African American women mathematicians to America's space program, describing how Jim Crow laws segregated them despite their groundbreaking successes.