La conquête de l'espace

Published by Larousse in co-edition with RTL in 1983 for the bicentenary of the Montgolfiers' first flight, this large illustrated volume retraces two hundred years of the conquest of air and space, from the brothers Montgolfier's first balloon (1783) to the Space Shuttle and the planetary probes of the 1980s. It is organized in three parts, each by a different author: ballooning and airships ("lighter-than-air", Marie-Hélène Reynaud), aviation ("heavier-than-air", Patrick Facon) and astronautics ("beyond the atmosphere", Philippe de La Cotardière). The foreword is by astronaut Jean-Loup Chrétien. Richly illustrated with old engravings and photographs, the book is aimed at a general readership and closes with an index.