THIS IS ROCKET SCIENCE
TRUE STORIES OF THE RISK-TAKING SCIENTISTS WHO FIGURE OUT WAYS TO EXPLORE BEYOND EARTH
by Gloria Skurzynski
FOR MEGAN ALANE GLORIA LEDESMA, WHO WILL LIVE IN A WHOLE NEW WORLD—GS
PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
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Lori Epstein, Gloria Skurzynski,
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author is exceedingly grateful to rocket scientist Ed Skurzynski and to dedicated editor Suzanne Patrick Fonda and art director David Seager for their continuous support. Deep thanks also to Françoise Ulam; to David S. Nolan; Marc Rayman at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Mike Wright and Betty Humphery at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center; Norman Chaffee, Roger Weiss, and Mike Gentry at NASA Johnson Space Center; Gwen Pitman at NASA Media Services; Linda S. Sandoval at Los Alamos National Laboratory; Suzanne DuBeau Rostek at Astrotech Space Operations, Inc; Valerie-Anne Lutz van Ammers at the American Philosophical Society Library; Andrew Ilin at Ad Astra; Roger G. Gilbertson at SpaceX; Jordin Kare at Laser-Motive; and, for her continuing inspiration to students, to France Anne Cordova, President of Purdue University and former NASA Chief Scientist, the youngest person and first woman to hold that position.
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Copyright © 2010 Gloria Skurzynski. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission from the publisher is prohibited.
Skurzynski, Gloria.
This is rocket science: true stories of the risk-taking scientists who figure out ways to explore beyond Earth / by Gloria Skurzynski.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-1-4263-0717-1
1. Rocketry—Biography. 2. Aerospace engineers—Biography—Juvenile literature. 3. Rocketry—History—Juvenile literature. 4. Rockets (Aeronautics)—History—Juvenile literature. I. Title.
TL781.85.A1S58 2010
629.4092’2—dc22
2009020386
Version: 2017-07-05
CONTENTS
THE FATHERS OF MODERN ROCKETRY
GLOSSARY