In less than the span of a human lifetime, we have explored the Moon and launched robot probes to Mars, Jupiter, and far beyond. In the coming decade we will send astronauts to the Moon once again, to rehearse for the time when humans first set foot on Mars. Space 50 explores the major themes of rocket exploration, past, present and future.
Half a century ago, the politicians of a nearly-forgotten Cold War provided the money and the motivation for our first ventures into space. It seemed as if all of humanity was destined to advance into a limitless new frontier. The dream faded almost as soon as it had burst into life. The Space Age apparently came to an end after little more than a single decade excitement.
Is it really over? Today, Politicians once again Planning a grand future space, and there are serious plans for human mission to Mars in the coming generation. The United States, Europe, Russia, Japan and China have decided that the human adventure must continue alongside the robotic exploration of our solar system. Ambitious new spacecraft are emerging, born out of a fresh spirit of competition: this time not between enemies but among allies.
Another kind of rival is also reinvigorating the space adventure. In the next decade, commercial companies will transform our relationship with the rocket. Private citizens will gain access to space, and multi-billion dollar boosters built by giant government agencies will no longer be the only way to reach orbit, or even land on the Moon.
Stunningly illustrated with specially chosen photos and images, Space 50 explores the challenges and the opportunities awaiting us among the stars. The next fifty years promise to be even more exciting than the last.

Space 50

Science & Math

Bizony, Piers

Astronomy & Space Science

Smithsonian

Take an amazing and truly awe-inspiring visual voyage, courtesy of 100 incredible images made from the most sophisticated, cutting-edge technology, and see what can’t be seen with the naked eye. It’s an eye-opening experience: from the smashing of atoms to the diffraction of X-rays skimming through a crystal of DNA, the deepest patterns of nature’s building blocks are revealed to thrilling effect thanks to revolutionary technology. These thoroughly breathtaking images delve deep into the invisible world, letting us peer into the hidden secrets of heat, sound, and all manner of exotic energies and radiations. View the human body as seen in a colored Magnetic Resonance Imaging scan; a photo of a huge solar prominence, taken by an Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope; an enhanced electron scan of tiny dust mites; and striking spots of light from the distant galaxies. Computer simulations, powered by 21st-century mathematics, hint that there are still greater truths out there. It’s as unbelievable as the best science fiction—and it’s all true.

Invisible Worlds: Exploring The Unseen

WNWeidenfeld & Nicolson

Ladies and gentlemen, start your spaceships with this book that explores an exciting new era of space travel—the perfect science gift! Personal space travel is no longer the stuff of science fiction. The future is here: Civilians are launching into orbit. How to Build Your Own Spaceship takes readers on a fun and quirky trip to the forefront of commercial space travel-the latest technology, the major business players, and the personal and financial benefits that are ripe for the picking. Science-writer Piers Bizony's breadth of knowledge, quick wit, and no-nonsense explanations of the hard science in this emerging arena will satisfy even the most dedicated space fanatics. With practical advice (from picking the best jet fuel to funding your own fleet of space crafts), unbelievable space facts, and fascinating photos, Bizony's user-friendly guide to blasting off is a must-have ticket to the final frontier.

How to Build Your Own Spaceship: The Science of Personal Space Travel

Penguin Publishing Group

Writer Piers Bizony and award winning film producer Jamie Doran have written a slim, yet well-researched biography of the world's first spaceman, Yuri Gagarin, in Starman. The 250-page book traces Gagarin's jet-propelled life, from his poor- boy roots in the Russian village of Klushino to his historic flight into space on April 12, 1961. The biography's strong point is in its examination of the institutional idiocies and failures that marked the Russian space programme. A classic example would be Gagarin's death in an aircraft crash near Moscow on March 27, 1968. The Soviet authorities left his family believing he was assassinated when it was almost certain that the cause of the crash was a simple air traffic control error. In another incident, a pre-flight report that showed cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov's Soyuz spacecraft had 203 faults--including a parachute that wouldn't open--was pulped. Komarov died in the craft. The biography is a fascinating--yet chilling--look at bureaucracy gone wrong.

Starman: The truth behind the legend of Yuri Gagarin

Biographies & Memoirs

Travelers & Explorers

Bloomsbury Pub.

On April 12 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in history to leave the Earth's atmosphere and venture into space. An icon of the 20th century, he also became a danger to himself, a threat to the Soviet state and, at the age of 34, he was killed in a plane accident. Based on KGB files, restricted documents from Russian space authorities, and interviews with his friends and colleagues, this biography of the Russian cosmonaut reveals a man in turmoil: torn apart by powerful political and emotional pressures; his private life in ruins; fighting a losing battle against alcoholism; and rebelling against the cruelties of a corrupt totalitarian regime. The authors also suggest that Gagarin's death was no accident but a deliberate "political elimination".

Starman : Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin

Bloomsbury Publishing Pod

The first moon landing in July 1969 captured the imagination of the world as no subsequent “space spectacular” has. Forty years later, space historian Piers Bizony has produced a stunning visual record of this unparalleled mission. Drawing on high-resolution images from the entire suite of Apollo 11’s on-board film magazines, the book presents a complete picture of the mission: the launch, the astronauts’ lives inside the spacecraft, the landing and moon walk, and finally the return to earth to worldwide acclaim. Accompanying these remarkable images, many published here for the first time, is Bizony’s fascinating essay on the lasting cultural and emotional impact of the mission. Quotes from astronauts, scientists, and literary commentators add an extra dimension to Bizony’s account. 
Apollo 11 may have happened a long time ago, Bizony remarks, but it casts an important shadow over today’s generation. Can we live up to it and learn from it--or even repeat its achievements with new spacecraft? However tempting it might be to assume that our advanced modern society could go back to the moon, it is an unavoidable fact, as this book makes clear, that Apollo 11 was an event that may never be replayed. One Giant Leap gives modern readers the information and perspective for thinking about Apollo 11 and space exploration in general in an entirely new way.

One Giant Leap: Apollo 11 Remembered

History

Americas

Zenith Press

This superbly designed and lavishly illustrated book marks a special moment in history: the final mission of the space shuttle. Noted space and science author Piers Bizony has put together a retrospective that covers the entire space shuttle program. In addition to covering every space shuttle mission, the book also covers the development and design of the space shuttle, as well as the technical specifications of the vehicle and details of its major assemblies and subassemblies. A full double-gatefold provides a large-scale technical drawing of the space shuttle.

The Space Shuttle: Celebrating Thirty Years of NASA's First Space Plane

Take a journey into the New Space Frontier! It is easy to imagine that the space shuttle's retirement has edged the Space Age toward closure, at least in terms of human flight beyond the bounds of earth. In fact, there are more people-carrying ships being constructed now than at any time since Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space half a century ago. Some are already servicing the International Space Station - which, incidentally, has ensured a permanent human presence in space for the last two decades, and is set to continue and expand for decades yet to come. What's more, NASA is no longer the only big player in the space game. Commercial, non-governmental space exploration is becoming a reality rather than just a pipe dream. What orbital adventures await us in the next five decades? Will humans ever again head into deep space, as the Apollo astronauts once did? NASA's new hardware is aimed toward asteroid missions, and ultimately, Mars, but there is a significant chance that a government funded space agency will not be the only - or even the first - organization to send humans across the solar system. Get ready to experience the excitement of adventure with New Space Frontier. Through gorgeous photography and engaging writing, noted space and science author Piers Bizony speculates beyond just today's hardware and explores what might be possible for the next generation.

New Space Frontiers: Venturing into Earth Orbit and Beyond

Get a full retrospective of all 134 flights, every mission, of the space shuttle program.
This superbly designed and lavishly illustrated reissue of the best-selling hardcover book marks a special moment in history: the final mission of the space shuttle. Noted space and science author Piers Bizony's retrospective covers the entire space shuttle program that began in 1981 and ended in 2011.
Every space shuttle mission is detailed, including all flights of the Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour spacecraft. The book also covers the development and design of the orbiter, as well as the technical specifications of the vehicle and details of its major assemblies and subassemblies. A full double-gatefold provides a large-scale technical drawing of the space shuttle.
If you never got to watch the countdown clock in person during a space shuttle launch, The Space Shuttle is your chance to relive the history of America's first low Earth orbital spacecraft.

Moonshots presents stunning photos of space and Earth from NASA’s archives - taken by Gemini, Apollo, Space Shuttle, and ISS astronauts using high resolution Hasselblad cameras. In December 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 captured images depicting Earth hanging like a lonely fruit in the vast darkness of space. The social and spiritual shock of that photograph—and those which followed—never fully diminished, even as Apollo missions followed at an incredible pace, including the first lunar landing on July 20, 1969. Moonshots is the definitive photographic chronicle of NASA space exploration—a giant slipcased book featuring more than 200 remarkable photographs from that eventful era created almost exclusively on large-format Hasselblad cameras. Though a number of these images have been reproduced in books and magazines over the years, one attribute of this incredible collection has seldom been exploited: the sheer size and resolution of the photography. Aerospace author Piers Bizony scoured NASA’s archives of Hasselblad film frames to assemble the space fan’s ultimate must-have book—a gorgeous large-format hardcover presented in a heavy slipcase with die-cuts to represent the phases of the moon. This resulting volume extracts a stunning selection of photographs captured by astronauts using Hasselblad equipment, many of them seldom previously published, let alone in such a lavish package. The Apollo voyages form the centerpiece of this amazing collection, but equally fabulous images from precursor Gemini missions are also featured, along with later photographs chronicling Space Shuttle missions and even the construction of the International Space Station.

Moonshots: 50 Years of NASA Space Exploration Seen through Hasselblad Cameras

Engineering & Transportation

Transportation

Voyageur Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bizony, Piers. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Bizony, Piers

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bizony, Piers. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Space 50

Invisible Worlds: Exploring The Unseen

How to Build Your Own Spaceship: The Science of Personal Space Travel

Starman: The truth behind the legend of Yuri Gagarin

Starman : Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin

One Giant Leap: Apollo 11 Remembered

The Space Shuttle: Celebrating Thirty Years of NASA's First Space Plane

New Space Frontiers: Venturing into Earth Orbit and Beyond

The Space Shuttle: Celebrating Thirty Years of NASA's First Space Plane

Moonshots: 50 Years of NASA Space Exploration Seen through Hasselblad Cameras