Tim Furniss

The biggest, strangest, and most remarkable Extreme Wonders on the planet are finally exposed and explained! A dynamic full-colour series covering the amazing creatures, technology, and events that surpass the ordinary. Each title explores the most thrilling and awesome occurrences of a specific topic, with exciting tales of the natural world, scientific discovery, and beyond. "Extreme Space" tells the story of the space travel's incredible dreamers, martyrs, and heroes, from the first notion of space travel hundreds of years ago to the great Space Race of the 1950s and 1960s, the moon landing, the development of space stations, the thousands of satellites on which our planet now depends, and the almost (but not quite) unbelievable possibilities of the future. Discover the earliest inventions that hinted at the possibilities, like balloons and gunpowder, and the latest innovations, such as exotic propulsion systems and next-gen shuttles. The wonders of the solar system are also revealed, along with the details on the search for life on other planets, the future of space tourism, the commercialisation of space, and much, much more!

Praxis Log of Manned Spaceflight 1961-2006 will open with a section entitled: Quest for Space, which will provide an explanation of the methods employed to get in and out of orbit and brief overviews of the different international space programmes. It will be a complete chronological log of all attempted orbital manned spaceflights, including the X-15 "astroflights" of the 1960s that only achieved an altitude of c. 50 miles and the two 1961 Mercury and Redstone missions which were non-orbital. There will be an image depicting each manned spaceflight, and data boxes containing brief biographies of all the space travellers and basic flight data. The main text will be a narrative of each mission, its highlights and accomplishments, including those strange facts and humorous stories that are connected to every mission. By targeting publication in September 2006, the return to flight of the Shuttle, two more Soyuz TMA launches and, quite possibly, a second Chinese manned mission. The resulting book will be a handy reference to all manned spaceflights, the names astronauts and cosmonauts who flew on each mission, and their roles and accomplishments. Recent announcements of a return to the Moon and eventual manned flights to Mars, as new hardware and procedures are developed to support these long-range programs, emphasizes the case for future updates of this book.