Space 50

With just under six months to go before the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik and the generally accepted beginning of the Space Age, one can expect the bookshelves to get crowded with books about the history of spaceflight and its future. (“Crowded” is used here in a relative sense; one can expect far more books about politics, finance, or even chicken soup for the souls of various groups, than for space history.) Some will be celebratory in tone, while others, perhaps, more critical; some will gloss over the basics of the history of spaceflight while others will drill deep into specific topics. One of the first books about the first fifty years of spaceflight, Space 50 by Piers Bizony, offers a basic and lavishly-illustrated, but not overly simplistic, review of the last fifty years.