The Dream Of Spaceflight
Author | : Wyn Wachhorst |
Publisher | : Da Capo Press |
Total Pages | : 266 |
Release | : 2001-05-17 |
ISBN-10 | : 0306810484 |
ISBN-13 | : 9780306810480 |
Rating | : 4/5 (84 Downloads) |
Download or read book The Dream Of Spaceflight written by Wyn Wachhorst and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2001-05-17 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of few truly gifted essayists who have turned their talents to science, Wyn Wachhorst here fashions a luminous meditation on the meaning of space exploration from a montage of images and reflections on humanity's dream of spaceflight. In a survey of major figures from Johannes Kepler to Wernher von Braun, he sees in the rise of spaceflight a metaphor of modern history as a recurrent story of transformation and rebirth. Other essays offer new perspectives on the nature of wonder, recall the romantic vision of the decades prior to Sputnik ("nostalgia for a bygone future"), and look at the larger meaning of the moon landing, seeing in spaceflight not only a spiritual quest in the broadest sense of the word, but a cure for the withered capacity for wonder that afflicts the postmodern mind.