Amazing Stories of the Space Age: True Tales of Nazis in Orbit, Soldiers on the Moon, Orphaned Martian Robots, and Other Fascinating Accounts from the Annals of Spaceflight

This book was reviewed in Smithsonian's Air And Space Magazine, with a very good review. I am glad that I purchased it. I would have given it another star if it had been longer. At 68 (and having followed the space program since I was 8 years old) I know a little bit about many of these stories. However, Mr. Pyle gives a great deal of additional details that make them fascinating. To many, it is absurd to consider that our military actually considered a rocket propelled by nuclear bombs. We're not talking about bombs exploding in deep space (this is still being considered in the future.) As Mr. Pyle notes, this is from liftoff on earth. No one stopped to consider the radiation hazards of such a rocket. Once they did, the program was shelved. There are other examples of ideas that are amazing, some which actually worked - at least in some form, and often years later. If you are interested in the Space Age, this book is truly fascinating.

At my age (60), I can remember the moon race and what we were told would follow it. As a space-flight enthusiast, I tend to know most of the things that would interest a guy like me. This book covers some of those things, but adds fresh material I hadn't known. It goes into details that, for reasons of secrecy or potential embarrassment, one or more governments haven't wanted to publicize. Some of those are rather bittersweet reading, as they touch on the almost-but-not-quite demises of branches of NASA's agenda that could have been much greater than they really were. (Imagine what ISS would be today, for example, if Skylab were part of it; could have happened, but things didn't work out that way.)Highly recommended to all us space nuts.

Everyone has their weakness when it comes to books. Murder mysteries. Romance novels. History. Mine is the "gee I didn't know that" genre, especially if it's related in any way to my second favorite ... outer space.This book is a cornucopia of facts, trivia and well, amazing stories about anything (and seemingly everything) that's out of this world, specifically missions that were conceived, attempted or didn’t quite make it. The book reads in some ways like a novel, in some ways like a documentary and yet in other ways like science fiction couched in reality (think Star Trek). What I’m saying is that the author obviously is “into” the subject and has created a book that’s difficult to set aside. For me it was just the right book to curl up with on chilly Autumn evenings with a cup of hot cocoa just like I used to do when I was a kid. But I don’t think you will have to be a scifi fan to enjoy it, it’s just darn good writing.A couple of important notes that DO NOT affect this review or rating. The advance copy I read was uncorrected for spelling. That's okay, my brain seems to self-correct such things. The printing and formatting of the book I read also may not be exactly the same as what ends up on the bookshelves, but I just want to mention in passing that when I ordered it I somehow thought it would be larger. I hope the publisher considers making it available in a larger format binding, it would be a good title for gifting or coffee table display.

What interested me about this book was the behind the scenes stories that you don't get to read about in most histories. Some of the items I had never heard about before or knew very little about the subject. This provided a great introduction and sufficient depth to educate you about the space program issues that wont show up in your typical space program reviews. I greatly enjoyed the last chapter that touched on the Major Matt Mason toy line of the 60s that I grew up with. It also briefly discusses the current space efforts by commercial space to put Americans back into orbit.

Bought this as a gift for my husband, who loves anything to do with space. It came quickly and he likes it.

Very interesting recount of the development of rockets starting before Von Braun. I recall the rivalry of the services and NASA to get launch and orbiting hardware designed and online...was unaware of some programs like Blue Gemini. Great read..

This is a collection of short stories about the space age. Some of them were quite entertaining.

"...Nazis in Orbit..." provides an "inside baseball" view of mainstream missions readers have heard of and missions and space hardware which are more obscure. An informitive and entertaining read.

As someone who has followed the space race since Yuri Gagarins pioneering spaceflight I was amazed to learn what America and the USSR have been doing or considering doing.

Lots of interesting stuff that I had not heard about before

Terrefic book. There many chapters about aborted space projects like the X20(an ealry space plane). Some story are sad like the one of cosmonaut Validimir Komarov. Komarov knew and warned the soviet space program that the Soyouz space craft was flawed and had many defects. He somehow flew it but tragically died when his parachutes weren,t able to deploy. the soviet were reckless but somehow a lunar flybay was too risky for them in 1968(there a interesting chapter about the soviet moon flyby projects).There funy one like the US air Force proposal and study for space pistols! There the missed opportunities like the nuclear propulsion space ships that could have opened deep space to human kind on the cheap like the Orion project.Overall a funny book that we learn the less known aspects of space endeavour. Also there author explain in a way the average Joe and Jane can undersand how those crafts would or wouldn't have flown.

Excellent book, easy to read, and very entertaining. This book is for nerds, and near nerds only. In many times I usually mail my old, already read, books to nerd friends, but in this case, I will keep it for myself!