Testing the limits : aviation medicine and the origins of manned space flight / Maura Phillips Mackowski.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mackowski, Maura Phillips.

Contributor:

Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

Series:

Centennial of flight series ; no. 15.

Centennial of flight series ; no. 15

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Space medicine.

History.

Aviation medicine.

United States.

Aviation medicine--United States--History.

Space medicine--United States--History.

Aerospace Medicine--history.

History, 20th Century.

Military Medicine--history.

Space Flight--history.

Medical Subjects:

United States.

Aerospace Medicine--history.

History, 20th Century.

Military Medicine--history.

Space Flight--history.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 289 pages : illustrations, 1 map ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

College Station : Texas A & M University Press, [2006]

Summary:

"In 1958 the United States launched its first satellite and created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). By 1961 NASA was confident enough to put a human being into space thanks to decades of military medical research. Efforts at Wright Field and the army's School of Aviation Medicine, which Armstrong had also turned into a world-class research institution, were the real reason for the successful start to America's manned space program."

"In Testing the Limits, Maura Phillips Mackowski describes the crucial foundational contributions of military flight surgeons who routinely risked their lives in test aircraft, research balloons, pressure chambers, rocket-propelled sleds, or parachute harnesses. Drawing on rare primary sources and interviews, Mackowski also reveals the little-known but vital contributions of German emigre scientists whose expertise in areas unknown to Americans created a hybrid specialty: space medicine. Mackowski reveals new details on human aeromedical experimentation at Dachau, Washington's decision to limit astronaut status to males, and the choice to freeze the air force out of the research specialty it had created and brought to fruition."--Jacket.

Contents:

1. The Americans

2. The Germans

3. World War II

4. The paperclips

5. The fastest man alive

6. Organizing for space

7. "Detailed to NASA"

Epilogue : out in the cold.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 218-273) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

1585444391

9781585444397

OCLC:

57564786

Publisher Number:

99981826807