FROM THE CHIEF HISTORIAN BORIS CHERTOK'S Rockets and ...

nasa history division
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Recent Publications (continued)
managerial diffculties solved by the team of thousands of specialists at Rocketdyne
and MSFC—things such as engine design and operating characteristics, program
requirements, goals, schedule diffculties, and problem solutions.
Missiles for the Fatherland: Peenemünde, National Socialism, and the V-2 Missile, by
Michael B. Petersen (Cambridge University Press, February 2009). Missiles for the
Fatherland tells the story of the scientists and engineers who built the V-2 missile in
Hitler’s Germany. This is the frst scholarly history of the culture and society that
underpinned missile development at Germany’s secret missile base at Peenemünde.
Using mainly primary source documents and publicly available oral history interviews,
Michael Petersen examines the lives of the men and women who worked at
Peenemünde and later at the underground slave labor complex called Mittelbau-
Dora, where concentration camp prisoners mass-produced the V-2.
Tom Sachs: Space Program, by Tom Sachs with contributions from Buzz Aldrin,
Louise Neri, and Arthur C. Danto (Rizzoli, February 2009). For over a decade,
Sachs has pondered the technical ingenuity and romance with the unknown that
brought America the Apollo program. This publication documents the culmination
of his research: the realization of his own life-size space program, composed of three
main sculptural elements (Lunar Module, Mission Control, and Space Suit) and a
fight plan, all put to use during a live demonstration of a lunar landing. In his exuberant
manufacture of objects and scenarios, Sachs asks barbed questions of modern
creativity that relate to conception, production, consumption, and circulation.
Launching Science: Science Opportunities Provided by NASA’s Constellation System,
by the Committee on Science Opportunities Enabled by NASA’s Constellation
System and National Research Board (National Academies Press, February 2009).
In January 2004, NASA was given a new policy direction known as the Vision for
Space Exploration. That plan, now renamed the United States Space Exploration
Policy, called for sending human and robotic missions to the Moon, on to Mars,
and beyond. In 2005, NASA outlined how to conduct the frst steps in implementing
this policy and began the development of a new human-carrying spacecraft known
as Orion, the lunar lander known as Altair, and the launch vehicles Ares I and Ares
V. Collectively, these are called the Constellation System. In November 2007, NASA
asked the National Research Council (NRC) to evaluate the potential for new science
opportunities enabled by the Constellation System of rockets and spacecraft.
The NRC committee evaluated a total of 17 mission concepts for future space science
missions. Of those, the committee determined that 12 would beneft from the
Constellation System and 5 would not. This book presents the committee’s fndings
and recommendations, including cost estimates, a review of the technical feasibility
of each mission, and identifcation of the missions most deserving of future study.
The Rockets and Missiles of White Sands Proving Ground: 1945–1958, by Gregory
P. Kennedy (Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., March 2009). In 1945, the United States
Army established a testing center for rockets and guided missiles in south-central
New Mexico. Named White Sands Proving Ground, this center was the locale for
many of America’s frst steps towards space. Rockets and Missiles of White Sands
Proving Ground chronicles major activities at the base from 1945 to 1958. During
this period, the Army, Navy, and Air Force all tested missiles at the desert installation.
This book details the development and testing for such missiles as Hermes,
Corporal, Nike Ajax, Sergeant, Honest John, and Viking. These missiles formed the
backbone of much of America’s arsenal during the Cold War and represented major