From attending the NYC parade celebrating John Glenn in 1962 and attending the launch of Apollo 11 in 1969, to serving on the NASA advisory council and the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, John Logsdon has been a keen observer of space history. In THE PENGUIN BOOK OF OUTER SPACE EXPLORATION, Logsdon combines original source material with his expert narrative guidance to trace the greatest moments in human spaceflight, such as the one he witnessed in 1969. Beginning with rocket genius Wernher von Braun’s vision for voyaging to Mars, and closing with Elon Musk’s contemporary plan to get there, this volume traces major events like the founding of NASA, the first American astronauts in space, the moon landings, the Challenger disaster, the daring Hubble Telescope repairs, and more.

John Logsdon is one of America’s foremost experts on space policy and history. In 1987, he founded the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, which he directed until 2008. He is a former member of the NASA Advisory Council and he served on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board in 2003. He is the editor of a seven-volume NASA history Exploring the Unknown, and his books include John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon and After Apollo? Richard Nixon and the American Space Program.