“Beyond Earth: A Chronicle Of Deep Space Exploration, 1958-2016” by Asif A Siddiqi

Main Index / Reviews Index / Nonfiction Reviews Index / 2018 Reviews Index

Rating: 3/5 Stars

A book that takes a chronological look at all the deep space missions launched by the United States, the Soviet Union and also, later, by Russia, ESA, Japan and India. Deep space here means out of Earth orbit, so unmanned missions to the Moon, other planets, the asteroids and other that enter orbits around the sun are covered. ‘All missions’ means all known missions, whether they are successful or failures, especially from the Soviet Union who have a tendency to try to disguise failed missions as something else.

Depending on your fascination with space missions and your knowledge of spacecraft technology and terminology, this book will fascinate or bore you. The book is a basic list of craft launched year by year, with a short summary of the launch vehicle and controlling organization, followed by a list of the included scientific instruments and ending with a summary of the craft’s failures and successes.

The earlier chapters are brief, mainly due to the large number of failed launches by both the US and Soviet Union. But as time passes, the US start to get more successful launches and the summaries get longer. By the second half of the book, the number of launches has decreased, but the rate of success has gone up, and other countries have started to get into the exploration scene.

Later missions are probably more familiar to readers who have kept up with current space exploration, while the earlier chapters will give you an idea of just how many failed launches (or craft that launched but failed to fulfil their missions) marked the beginning of the space age.

Also of interest is the information on some craft that launched in the 20th century but are still working and still providing (basic) data like their locations. The best examples of these still working craft are the Voyager probes.

Book read from 2018/12/07 to 2019/01/26