Star Bound

A Beginner's Guide to the American Space Program, from Goddard's Rockets to Goldilocks Planets and Everything in Between

Emily Carney, Bruce McCandless

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN:
  9781496242068
• Subtopic: Aeronautic & Astronautic Engineering

Star Bound is a book for anyone who wants to learn about the American space program but isn't sure where to start. First and foremost, it's a history—short, sweet, and straightforward. From rocketry pioneer Robert Goddard's primitive flight tests in 1926 through the creation of NASA, from our first steps on the moon to construction of the International Space Station and planning a trip to Mars, readers will meet the people and projects that have put the United States at the forefront of space exploration. Along the way, they'll learn:

• How the United States beat the Soviets to the moon

• Why astronauts float in space (Hint: It's not for lack of gravity!)

• How fast spacecraft have to go to stay in orbit around Earth

• How we can "look back in time" through a space telescope

Authored by two veteran space writers with unique insights into the topic, Star Bound offers up the story of Americans in space with a focus on the cultural and societal contexts of the country's most important missions. Vibrant, positive, and humorous, Star Bound is packed with facts, asides, and not-entirely-definitive lists of the greatest space songs, books, movies, and more.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• The Sister of Icarus
• Epigraph
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• A Few Dates to Remember
• NASA’s Crewed Spaceflights (So Far)
• 1. First Principles
• 2. The Wizard of Worcester
• 3. Rocketry and Death
• 4. The ss Major and the Suicide Squad
• The All-Time Greatest Space Exploration Playlist
• 5. A Starting Gun Called Sputnik
• 6. Shadows in the Sky
• 7. Project Mercury
• Eleven Boffo Space Books to Launch at Your Brain
• 8. Gemini’s Forgotten Flights
• 9. The Rise and Fall of the American Astronaut
• The Best Space Stuff You Can Watch
• 10. Apollo and the First Man on the Moon
• 11. Skylab and the Renaissance of American Science
• NASA’s Eleven Coolest Astronauts
• 12. Probes, Rovers, and the Golden Record
• 13. The Butterfly and the Bullet
• NASA’s Eleven Greatest Missions
• 14. Sleeping with the Russians
• 15. False Starts, Missteps, and the Promise of Artemis
• America’s Eleven Biggest Space Losses
• 16. The New Space Race
• 17. The Commercialization of Space
• Eleven Everyday Benefits of the American Space Program
• 18. Curse You, Gene Roddenberry!
• The Eleven Most Persistent Rumors, Riddles, and Conspiracy Theoriesabout the American Space Program
• 19. Looking Outward
• Eleven Fearless Space Predictions
• 20. Why It’s Worth It
• Sources
• About Emily Carney
• About Bruce McCandless III
• Series List
• Illustrations