Reviews for Apollo in Perspective: Spaceflight Then and Now

The average rating for Apollo in Perspective: Spaceflight Then and Now based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-06-05 00:00:00 Kevin Joyce The Orbital Mechanics chapter of Elements Of Spacecraft Design is basically a slightly compressed version of this book (the propulsion chapter is a somewhat more compressed version of Spacecraft Propulsion). Brown doesn't try to obscure this, but it could have been done a bit better; in some cases, the wording should have been updated to reflect sections instead of chapters. The virtues and vices of Spacecraft Mission Design are basically the same as Elements of Spacecraft Design. For the most part, this is a good introduction to astrodynamics for mission planning, but in a few places still leaves a bit to be desired. A handful of section are more in-depth than in Elements of Spacecraft Design, but there are plenty of concepts which need more extensive explanation, simpler and more intuitive diagrams, or examples which don't skim over important steps. Brown's efforts to write a book "which fits in your briefcase" may have gone too far in the direction of simplification. If you're making a purchasing decision to maximize value, it's probably best to buy Elements of Spacecraft Design. The biggest advantage of Spacecraft Mission Design is a greater number of exercises, all of which can be worked with the ORBWIN software that this book was probably a vehicle to sell. I kind of doubt it's been updated to work on post-1990s machines, and honestly? An engineer could write functions to solve the questions themselves given the number of free editors available today. I would recommend this as a reference text for most spacecraft engineers and astrodynamicists. Despite its flaws, Brown is a relatively clear and straightforward writer, and compiles a tremendous number of useful equations and relevant data in a small space. It's strange to think the knowledge to plan missions across the Solar System can fit in such a tiny book.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-07-11 00:00:00 Michael Huxley A decent book discussing the changes that NASA has gone through since its inception. While there is nothing earth shattering here, you can see why general public support for space has been flagging since the days of the Apollo missions. Being involved in the aerospace industry, I already knew a lot of what was presented here, but for an amateur space enthusiast or anyone interested in why we have actually regressed in our space capabilities, this book gives most of the reasons why.