La Conquête de l'espace

Popular astronomy album combining the text of American publicist Willy Ley with the gouaches of Chesley Bonestell, published by Viking Press in 1949 and translated into French by Robert Laffont in late 1952. The book takes the reader on an imaginary tour of the solar system, from the firing of a rocket at White Sands to the moons of the outer planets. Four chapters survey the principles of rocket propulsion, basic celestial mechanics, lunar landing conditions and the physical description of the planets, closing with two reference tables of the bodies and satellites of the solar system. Thirty-two plates by Bonestell, including the celebrated view of Saturn from Titan, accompany the narrative.