A speculative Soviet book about rocket technology and space travel from the beginning of the space era in the late 1950s.

Translated from the Russian By G. Yankovsky

You can get the book here and here.

Contents

Introduction 5

From Legend to Science in Space Flight

I. SPACE VEHICLES
1. Escape from the Earth 12
2. Rocket—Prototype of Spaceship 17
3. Artificial Satellites 21
4. Assembling the Satellite 32
5. Space Craft in Design 33

II. MAN IN OUTER SPACE
1. High Speeds Are Harmless 35
2. In the World of Overweight 39
3. Life in Conditions of Weightlessness 41
4. Artificial Gravity 44
5. Problems of Eating and Breathing 49
6. The Hazards of Space Flight 50
7. Preparing for a Flight into Space 54

III. ARTIFICIAL SATELLITES AND THEIR OBSERVATION
1. Orbiting Artificial Satellites 58
2. A Stationary Artificial Satellite 65
3. Observing Artificial Satellites 66
4. The Movements of Celestial Bodies Viewed from Artificial Satellites 79
5. Days, Nights, and Seasons on Artificial Satellites 82

IV. ARTIFICIAL SATELLITES PUT TO USE
1. Flying Observatories and Laboratories 85
2. Artificial Satellites as Interplanetary Stations 95
3. The Problem of Natural Interplanetary Stations 99

V. ON BOARD THE SPACESHIP
1. Take-off 101
2. In Flight 103
3. Landing 106

VI. SPACE FLIGHT
1. A Trip to the Moon 108
2. Mission to Mars 111
3. A Voyage to Venus 116
4. Journeys to Other Worlds 120

Conclusion 124

Original scan by DLI. This is a cleaned, optimised scan.