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EDITORIAL INFORMATION

This volume contains the English language proceedings of the eighteenth and nineteen history symposia of the International Academy of Astronautics. It came to my desk in the wake of unprecedented changes on the international scene. In the fall of 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed, replaced in December by the Commonwealth of Independent States. The papers contained in this volume compass for the most part the cold war history of rocketry and astronautics of another epoch. They represent an epoch in which the triumphs of planned socialist science and engineering challenged the eclectic ways and aspirations of these disciplines unfolding elsewhere in systems of reasonably free enterprise. For this reason, if for no other, the reader may find them of interest.

(Extracted from the foreword, written by R. Cargill Hall).

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Foreword. R. Cargill Hall.

-Preface. Tom D. Crouch & Alex M. Spencer

-Part I: Early Solid Propellant Rocketry.

-1- Early Rocket Weapons in China.
-2- Nineteenth Century Rocketry in France.
-3- Some Features of Livesaving Rocket Development in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries.
-4- The Rocket Development of Issac Lubbock and Geoffrey Collin.

-Part II: Rocketry and Astronautics: Concepts, Theories and Analyses.

-5- The Contributions of K.E. Tsiolkovsky and Other Native Scientists to the Technology of Rocket Launching.
-6- The Smaller British Societies Devoted to Astronautics and Interplanetary Flight.
-7- Function, Form, and Technology: The Evolution of Space Station in NASA.
-8- Reaching for the Planet Mars: Humankind's Evolving Perspective.
-9- Sotir Cherkezov: The Inventor of a Device for Rescuing Spacemen.

-Part III: Liquid- and Solid-Propellants Rockets, 1880-1945.

-10- Some Important Aspects on the Three Centuries Old History of Romanian Aerospace Techniques.
-11- British Rocketry during World War II.
-12- A Brief History of the First U.S. JATO Flight Tests of August 1941: A Memoir.
-13- Comparative Analysis of Developments in the Active and Reactive Methods of Projection.

-Part IV: Rocketry and Astronautics since 1945.

-14- Engines and Propulsion Units for Space Vehicles Constructed by Alexey M. Isaev.
-15- A Survey of World Meteorological and Environmental Satellites, 1960-1985.
-16- A History of Heat Shields for Manned Space Flight.
-17- Thirty Years of the Polish Astronautical Society.

-Part V: Pioneers of Rocketry and Astronautics.

-18- Anatole Arkadievich Blagonravov and Soviet Cosmonautics.

-Numerical Index and Author Index.

OUR REVIEW

The great diversity of themes dealt with in this book confirms once again the service the American Astronautical Society is undertaking so as to make the history of astronautics available to anyone interested. In this occasion the lectures presented in Switzerland (1984) and Sweden (1985) are included here, except for a few ones which had no available copies whatsoever. Like in the other occasions, the papers have been divided into several chronologically ordered sections.

One of the most noteworthy points is the presence of authors from all over the world. Astronautics is, then, a global science in whose development individuals as well as research centers from numerous countries have participated, and its history involves them.

Among the authors of the texts in this book we will find well known historians, engineers, etc., like for instance J. Griffiths, Frederick I. Ordway, Leon Ronquillo, and others. All of them contribute with very interesting material, occasionally unpublished or little researched, now at the service of the reader.