This beautifully illustrated book gives an inside look into the science of traveling beyond Earth's atmosphere. Easy-to-understand language helps explain early experiments that led from the NRL V-2 rockets launched by the United States in the 1940s, to the first artificial satellites, space probes, and rockets. The history of the manned Apollo and Gemini missions is also explained using brilliant photographs. Flight Into Orbit gives children a full view of what space travel was really like in the last century and what it will be like in the future. Topics addressed include
• the life of an American astronaut or a Russian cosmonaut
• the technology behind space travel
• zero gravity and living in space
• the Challenger space shuttle missions
• the future of space travel