General Question Space Shuttle books

Wolf

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What are the best books on the Space Shuttle available in your opinion? I refer here to photography books possibly including some tech/hystoric data of the STS program (no novels). I' ve seen a few on the website which look interesting like

Dennis Jenkins:

"Space Shuttle: The History of the National Space Transportation System : the First 100 Missions"

"The Space Shuttle: Celebrating Thirty Years of NASA's First Space Plane"

David Baker:
"Nasa Space Shuttle Manual: An Insight into the Design, Construction and Operation of the Nasa Space Shuttle"

"Space Shuttle: The First 20 Years -- The Astronauts' Experiences in Their Own Words"

Piers Bizony:
"The Space Shuttle: Celebrating Thirty Years of Nasa's First Space Plane"

Also, does anyone know if diagrams/blue prints of the Orbiters different TPS configurations are available somewhere? I have some scanned pages and I'd like to get to the source
IMG_1163.jpg



 
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DaveS

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You should really get the 3-volume 4th revision of Jenkin's shuttle book. Well worth the cost. Very high quality. Where available, the photos are actually in color, not black&white. The technical description volume itself is some 520 pages! That's where I got the TPS scans from.
 

zerofay32

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I know you said you only wanted picture books ;) but "The Space Shuttle Decision" (two volumes) by T.A. Heppenheimer is the best insights into the development of the STS. The section on the SSME development alone is worth the price.

Volume I is all pre 1972 concepts and discussions about the shuttle that started in the mid 60s. Volume II covers the whole development of the STS design that was ultimately selected.

It's been a few years since I've read it, but I remember it being a great balance of the technical side as well as stories of the people involved.
 
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Thorsten

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I have that one

"Space Shuttle: The First 20 Years -- The Astronauts' Experiences in Their Own Words"

and I like it a lot for the impressions it conveys. It is not a technical book at all, it comes with lots of pictures and the text is small blocks where the various astronauts tell small stories about anything Shuttle-related.

Some of them are hilarious (going with the family to Disney world riding Space Mountain after a launch abort in the morning), some are very personal (Story Musgrave telling the crew prior to launch that he's not in the mood to goof around because he's scared to death), but they all give some inside picture on what's happening in Space.
 
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