Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Archive for the ‘Space Book Reviews’ Category

Innovation the NASA Way: Harnessing the Power of Your Organization for Breakthrough Success by Rod Pyle; McGraw Hill, New York, New York; $30.00 (hard cover); 2014.

Author Rod Pyle has taken an up-close look at NASA’s on-going ability to innovate, be it during the Apollo program, flying the Voyager spacecraft, building the International Space Station, and that nail biting flair of creativity as evidenced by landing the Curiosity rover that’s now wheeling across Mars.

This is a unique and absorbing book, one that provides learn by doing messages for consideration in the businesses and workplace.

Pyle notes that the NASA of today is home to individuals that conceptualize grand new programs with exciting and unique goals, people that “define outside-the-box thinking.” He adds: “Despite the challenges of low budgets and risk aversion, thoughtful innovation does ascend through the system.”

Innovation the NASA Way, in a sense, is both historical narrative and a practical user’s guide to help you infuse tenacity with management skills, as well as stir in a generous helping of creativity – all qualities that can boost business success.

Pyle’s key message is that, while space exploration may be NASA’s mission, the myriad of innovative leadership practices the space agency has honed over the decades are founded on solid, down-to-earth methods anyone can use, anywhere.

I particularly enjoyed the chapter on NewSpace: Capitalism Shining Bright. “There is room for countless newcomers,” Pyle explains, matched up with a “profound role for government support.”

The book is complete with a foreword by Lori Garver, former NASA Deputy Administrator who notes: “My belief is that NASA’s primary value to society is as an engine of innovation. Reading this book is an affirmation of that belief.”

Kudos to Pyle for the book’s well-documented account of NASA as it continues to push the throttle to full power on imagination and innovation.

For more information on this book, go to:

http://www.mhprofessional.com/product.php?isbn=007182913X

Photo Credit: Eric Long/NASM

For those of you in the Denver, Colorado area:

I’ll be teaming up with Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin on May 24^th at two different events.

We’ll be discussing and signing our book – Mission to Mars – My Vision for Space Exploration – and serve up a few surprises too.

Events:

1)

Saturday, May 24 at 1:00 PM

Barnes and Noble

960 S Colorado Blvd, Glendale, CO 80246

Phone: 303-691-2998

For more info, go to:

http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/83711

2)

Saturday, May 24 at 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

You must sign up to become a museum member to attend an exclusive, private event for 2013 Spreading Wings Gala guests, Museum Members and Teacher Flight Envoys.

Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum

7711 East Academy Boulevard

Denver, CO 80230-6929

Phone: 303-360-5360

For more information, go to:

http://www.wingsmuseum.org/news/1-latest-news/281-buzz-aldrin

Credit: MIT Press

Marketing the Moon – The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program by David Meerman Scott & Richard Jurek; MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.; $39.95 (hard cover); Feb. 2014.

This is an absolutely marvelous and exceptional read!

The authors, both marketing sages, have written a captivating book that delves into the promotion and public relations campaigns to advance the Apollo program.

In the book’s foreword, former Apollo 17 moonwalker, Eugene Cernan, sets the stage for the book, calling it “a story of the challenges and ultimate success of marketing one of the greatest achievements in American – and world – history.”

What’s so valuable about this book is its retro-fire into history to provide guidance and instruction – as the authors note, a “case study” – for modern-day practitioners. And given the present and perplexing state of astronautics in the United States, this book makes for required bedside reading for today’s spin doctors of space.

From early space-themed television shows, the magnificent Collier’s magazine space series to the Sputnik scare, Life magazine and TV broadcasts of Apollo 11 and other shoot-for-the-Moon missions – the book is a must read…and a must remember tale. It plowed up many of my own space history roots…a time, in my view, when “Tomorrowland” really stood for something.

The contents include looks at NASA brand journalism, the astronauts as celebrities, and what the authors describe as “an unprecedented public relations partnership between NASA and industry.”

The book carries an impressive number of pictures (over 200 color illustrations and 25 black and white illustrations). Each section is sprinkled with great references.

The book’s closing chapter is “So, Where to Now, Columbus?” and closes off with a note that “in essence, the visionaries of the digital generation were also the Apollo generation.”

You’ll find this volume to be a wonderful read, written by two individuals that clearly care about what the past should tells us about pushing forward.

By the way, Scott is obviously a space cadet of the first order. He is thought to be the only person in the world with a lunar module decent engine thrust chamber in his living room. Co-author Jurek is a lifelong space enthusiast and a collector of historic space artifacts, with the world’s largest collection of $2 bills that have flown in space.

A couple of quirky notes to add: The book’s first inside image that spills over two pages is from Japan’s KAGUYA lunar orbiter that relayed HDTV images via NHK (Japan’s national public broadcasting organization) to produce a “Full Earth Rise” sequence. Lastly, the book is printed and bound in China.

Perhaps both are subtle reminders that other nations may well be filling the vacuum void left by those that marketed the Moon on behalf of America.

For more information on this book, go to:

http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/marketing-moon

Also, give a listen to a special podcast, an MIT press interview with David Meerman Scott and Richard Jurek.

Go to:

EPISODE 60 (MAR. ’14): David Meerman Scott and Richard Jurek

http://mitpress.mit.edu/multimedia

X-15: The World’s Fastest Rocket Plane and the Pilots Who Ushered in the Space Age by John Anderson and Richard Passman; Zenith Press/Quayside Publishing Group, Minneapolis, MN.; Licensed by Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum; $30.00 (hard cover); 2014.

This account of the pioneering X-15 program (flying from 1959 into 1968) is a highly enjoyable read. The authors have written a superb book, detailing how this experimental space plane effort proved essential to mastering hypersonic aerodynamics, winged reentry from space, and gave NASA a leg up on developing the Space Shuttle decades later.

Rocketing out of the “sensible atmosphere,” the X-15 was a “need for speed” development. And as the authors note, the unique craft remains today the fastest and highest-flying piloted airplane in existence – although one does wonder about those classified craft that surely benefited by the X-15 experience.

Three X-15s were built, with the last flight taking place on October 24, 1968 – the 199th flight of the program.

The book takes the reader from the genesis of the X-15 and backing by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) – the precursor group to NASA – through nearly 200 flights by the rocket plane. The volume’s 144-pages are peppered with a striking roundup of images that showcase the X-15’s impressive run.

But more than hardware is spotlighted in this book. Winding through the pages are captivating tales of the risks and dangers of flying the X-15, manhandled by crack test pilots that included Neil Armstrong, Scott Crossfield, Joe Walker, Bill Dana, Bob White, and Joe Engle.

The book also reports on the tragic loss of Mike Adams, the only pilot to lose his life flying the X-15.

“Each of the X-15 test flights was an example of intense man-machine interaction,” the authors write, “and each of the twelve pilots who flew the X-15 were as finely tuned and technologically sophisticated as the machine itself.”

In closing words, Anderson and Passman explain that feasible hypersonic manned flight still lies ahead, “and when that happens, the X-15 will indeed be the ‘Wright Flyer’ of its kind.”

So when you walk through the halls of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, don’t forget to look up at the X-15 suspended in the Milestones of Flight Gallery – a history-making craft that nosed its way into the future.

For more information on this book, go to:

http://www.qbookshop.com/products/210839/9780760344453/X-15.html

America’s Space Futures: Defining Goals for Space Exploration, Editor Eric Sterner; George C. Marshall Institute, Arlington, Va.; $12.99, shipping and handling $3.99; (soft cover); 2013.

The George C. Marshall Institute has published a thought-provoking new book, America’s Space Futures: Defining Goals for Space Exploration, edited by Institute Fellow Eric R. Sterner.

There are those that see NASA as a lost in space agency, lacking of vision, without direction and having a shortfall of finances to set the country on a proper trajectory of space leadership.

This book adds fodder to that precept. It has convened an august group of authorities to look at today’s NASA and where the country should go in space. Basically, it’s a view of that “vision thing.”

Contributors to the book are:

•James Vedda, Senior Policy Analyst at the Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Space Policy & Strategy

•Scott Pace, Director of the Space Policy Institute and Professor of International Affairs, George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs

•William Adkins, President of Adkins Strategies LLC and former Staff Director of the House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee

•Charles Miller, President of NexGen Space LLC and former NASA Senior Advisor for Commercial Space

•Eric Sterner, Fellow at the George C. Marshall Institute and faculty member at Missouri State University Graduate Department of Defense and Strategic Studies.

I think the reader will find their perspectives, in essay form, of value – but also may shake up the views of some.

The book is potpourri of prognostication about where NASA has come from and where it’s going – or where it needs to go. This volume deals with what makes for a 21^st century space strategy; how best to advance U.S. geopolitical and international interests in space; the need to prime the pump on research and development to ensure space leadership; and a historical look at private-sector – government partnerships.

Sterner as editor adds as wrap up to the book: “As our space program moves forward, it’s critical that we not simply start with where we are and look to make things better, but that we have a clear eye on where we want to be.”

My view is that this book is a contribution to that debate, deliberation, and decision-making intended to recast and strengthen the U.S. space program, and enlighten those that are hungry for a revitalized U.S. space agenda.

For more information on this book, go to:

http://marshall.org/space-policy/americas-space-futures-defining-goals-for-space-exploration/

NOTE: On December 13, 2013, the Institute brought together contributors to the book for a special discussion. The video can be seen here:

http://www.viddler.com/v/9042699?secret=98922998

Book Review: Alien Seas – Oceans in Space

http://spacecoalition.com/blog/book-review-alien-seas-–-oceans-in-space