Subtitled ‘Artifacts, Equipment, and Sites from the American Space Program’, this book documents said programme in seven chapters covering Mercury, Gemini, satellites and space probes, Apollo, Skylab, Space Shuttle and the ISS, and a miscellany of other capsules and hardware.
Author and keen photographer John Gourley has compiled an interesting selection of images of space hardware in US museums and space facilities. His text does not pretend to present a historical account of US space achievements, but does purport to be “the perfect complement to any such background documentary”. The latter is debatable, but the author certainly understands the challenges of photography in the confined, and usually poorly-lit, museum environment.
The book intends to provide “inspiration and encouragement” to visit “facilities near and far to take in the full measure of our rich space history”. Unfortunately for this non-American reviewer, it comes across as parochial in its limitation to US space history and serves only to encourage the widespread view that everything-space is done by NASA; but perhaps that is a reflection of the market expected by an American publisher.
This particular publisher has spared no expense on print and paper quality, which is designed to illustrate the images to their best possible advantage. However, critical and space-educated viewers will find much of the subject matter to be artistically lacking; although the images could not be classed as ‘snapshots’ because of their technical subjects, the reason for inclusion escapes me in some cases. Moreover, the decision to print four to a page, not exclusively but consistently throughout the book, reveals a lack of design flair.
That said, any young Americans looking for a visit list to satisfy their urge to see space hardware ‘in the metal’ will consider this a valuable resource.
