Space Race: The U.S.-U.S.S.R. Competition to Reach the Moon

This fascinating book tells, in concise text and abundant illustrations, the story of the fifty-year struggle for dominion of outer space between the United States and the Soviet Union.

The companion volume to a new permanent exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, "Space Race" examines the spectacular, publicly celebrated milestones of the first steps into space, as well as highly secret efforts to spy on adversaries from high above the Earth. More than one hundred photographs document technological advances in spacecraft, spacesuits, and surveillance equipment, while also telling the human story of space flight with pictures of astronauts, notes on their record-breaking journeys, and reproductions of engineers' first thumbnail sketches and rough outlines of what would become state-of-the-art rocketry.

120 pages, 68 color and 34 black-and-white photos. Smythe-sewn paperbound book, with flaps. Size: 8 1/2 x 11".