Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction
Spaceflight dreams and military imperatives
The Cold War space race
Space science and exploration
A global space infrastructure
Astroculture : spaceflight and the imagination
Human spaceflight after the cold war
Epilogue : the past and future of spaceflight

A concise history of spaceflight, from military rocketry through Sputnik, Apollo, robots in space, space culture, and human spaceflight today. Spaceflight is one of the greatest human achievements of the twentieth century. The Soviets launched Sputnik, the first satellite, in 1957; less than twelve years later, the American Apollo astronauts landed on the Moon. In this volume of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Michael Neufeld offers a concise history of spaceflight, mapping the full spectrum of activities that humans have developed in space.