Looks at the science behind rockets and rocketry, with experiments to try at home that demonstrate the principles involved.

"Providing the knowledge needed by practicing rocket scientists and engineers, Introduction to Rocket Science and Engineering presents the history and basics of rocket theory, design, experimentation, testing, and applications. It covers an array of fields, from advanced mathematics, chemistry, and physics to logistics, systems engineering, and politics." "Taking readers through the process of becoming a rocket scientist or engineer, this book supplies...

"During World War II, when the newly minted Jet Propulsion Laboratory needed quick-thinking mathematicians to calculate jet velocities and plot missile trajectories, they recruited an elite group of young women--known as human computers--who, with only pencil, paper, and mathematical prowess, transformed rocket design and helped bring about America's first ballistic missiles. But they were never interested in developing weapons--their hearts lay in...

"Blending a fascinating personal history with dramatic historical events, this book brings long-overdue attention to a brilliant woman whose work proved essential for America's early space program. This is the extraordinary true story of America's first female rocket scientist. Told by her son, it describes Mary Sherman Morgan's crucial contribution to launching America's first satellite and the author's labyrinthine journey to uncover his mother's...

Winner of the 1973 National Book Award, Gravity's Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the twentieth century as Joyce's Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force.