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EDITORIAL INFORMATION

The successful Soviet launch of Sputnik on 4 October 1957 created an enormous sensation in the United States, causing a great many Americans suddenly to doubt the effectiveness of American science, education and military capabilities. Above all, they feared that the Soviet Union had obtained a lead in the race to develop long-range missiles. It was in this crisis atmosphere that President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the U.S. Congress created a new agency - the National Aeronautics and Space Administration - which officially came into being on 1 October 1958.

In this fascinating book, part diary and part recollection, T. Keith Glennan - the first administrator of NASA - relates the story of how he and others both inside and outside the agency worked within the circumstances created by the Sputnik crisis to plan and organize a viable space program that ultimately put 12 Americans on the moon. In the process, Glennan also reveals a great deal about Eisenhower as a human being and a President, about the nation's capital at the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s, and about individuals like Wernher von Braun, the charismatic leader whose rocket team designed the Saturn launch vehicles that propelled the astronauts to lunar orbit.

The narrative that Glennan wrote is supplemented by an introduction tracing his Yale education and subsequent career as an engineer, AEC Commissioner, and president of Case Institute of Technology. It shows how his background prepared him for his role in creating a NASA that could carry out a broad-based scientific and technological program, suitable for the post-Sputnik era. Also included in the book is a biographical appendix sketching the careers of the key participants in the story Glennan relates.

(Extracted from the dust jacket)

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Contents.

-Preface.

-Introduction. Roger D. Launius.

-Chapter One: Recollection of NASA's Early Years.

-Chapter Two: January 1960.

-Chapter Three: February 1960.

-Chapter Four: March 1960.

-Chapter Five: April 1960.

-Chapter Six: May 1960.

-Chapter Seven: June 1960.

-Chapter Eight: July 1960.

-Chapter Nine: August 1960.

-Chapter Ten: September 1960.

-Chapter Eleven: October 1960.

-Chapter Twelve: November 1960.

-Chapter Thirteen: December 1960.

-Chapter Fourteen: January 1961.

-Postscript.

-Biographical Appendix.

-Index.

-Author of the Introduction. The Editor.

-The NASA History Publications.

OUR REVIEW

Using a straight, easy to read, yet cultivated style, T. Keith Glennan narrates his experiences in the creation and development of NASA, while reflecting his human side as well as that of the main characters involved in such a fascinating enterprise, specially that of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In doing so, he leads us to get to know who and what the key people in the history at the dawn of the space age in the United States were like. The book contains numerous footnotes to explain the context in which certain events took place, or what characters are referred to in certain quotes appearing in the text. The photographs and graphic sketches included (in black and white) are an adequate visual complement. Thirteen of the 14 chapters the book is divided into, are devoted to depicting the events that took place every month from January 1960 to January 1961. In the first chapter the author remembers the origins of the American space agency, then known as NACA. The book is a delightful review of the history that shaped the beginnings of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. In short, The Birth of NASA is no doubt an essential read for those who love astronautics and are interested in getting to know the origins of the American space program as well as the atmosphere that caused it to arise.