L'Homme dans l'espace

In this work, Albert Ducrocq charts the transformation of astronautics between 1959 and 1961, as ballistic satellites gave way to spacecraft capable of active manoeuvring. The book covers American technical satellite programmes (Tiros, Transit, Discoverers), capsule recovery techniques, the first Soviet manned spacecraft, Yuri Gagarin's flight of 12 April 1961, and new methods of guidance, orbital navigation, and space rendezvous. Completed for press on 29 April 1961, seventeen days after Gagarin's flight, the work offers a comprehensive survey of nascent astronautics on the eve of human spaceflight.