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EDITORIAL INFORMATION

This book is mainly about the resources NASA had access to during its first ten years of existence, that is, budgets, research centers, technical staff, and so on; as well as the basic directives in the management of these resources and the composition of the most important organisation charts. A thorough look at all that will uncover many revealing aspects of the management philosopy that the agency followed in its policy at that time reflected in the columns of figures provided, as well as of the historical circumstances that enveloped those first years of activity. This volume intends to offer the whole official information about tangible facts and figures which may be useful as a comprehensible, solid starting point for those readers who are interested in making historical studies.

(Extracted (edited) from the foreword.)

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Foreword.

-Preface.

-Contents.

-1: Introduction.
-2: NASA Facilities.
-3: NASA Personnel.
-4: NASA Finances.
-5: NASA Procurement.
-6: NASA Installations.

-Appendix A: Selected Aerospace Awards.
-Appendix B: Major NASA Organization Charts.
-Index.

-The Authors.

OUR REVIEW

The interests of this historical work is mainly found in its being an official, complete work which contains all feasible data on the internal functioning of NASA during its first decade of activity. The development of particular programs is not explained (as it will be dealt with in the second volume of this collection). What this book deals with is the detailed whole of all the financial, human and logistic elements which integrated the structure of the space agency, as well as the history of its main centers. Many of the pages in this volume contain data tables and charts, where the amounts of money, facilities, dates and implementations are reported in a direct, precise way. This work, very complete indeed as it is, will no doubt be an excellent tool to consult data which would be impossible to obtain from other sources.