L'Aventure astronautique

Heinz Gartmann
Translated from the German by B. Jouan
Year1955
PublisherÉditions France-Empire
PlaceParis
LanguageFR
Rating★★★☆☆ (3/5)
AudienceGeneral, Student
LevelBeginner
Keywords
proto-astronauticsastronauticsrockethistory of scienceWorld War II
ThemesProto-astronautics, Launchers & Propulsion

German science journalist Heinz Gartmann traces the human story of astronautics through biographical portraits of the pioneers who dreamed, experimented, and built the first reaction-propelled devices. From Hermann Ganswindt to Wernher von Braun (via Tsiolkovsky, Goddard and Oberth) the book presents nine biographical chapters covering the full arc of proto-astronautics, from the late nineteenth century to the aftermath of World War II.

📖 Editorial Review

At a moment when the first military rockets had just broken through the upper atmosphere, Gartmann published this biographical fresco of the forerunners of astronautics. As much a period document as a work of popular science, it speaks more to the historian seeking the intellectual climate of the 1950s than to the …