Memoirs Of A Rocket Scientist

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Memoirs of a Rocket Scientist

Author : Mark Salita
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781537779041
Total Pages : 100 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (79 download)

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Book Synopsis Memoirs of a Rocket Scientist by : Mark Salita

Download or read book Memoirs of a Rocket Scientist written by Mark Salita and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-02-02 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We've all heard the expression "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to be able to ...." Well, these Memoirs explain many aspects of what a rocket scientist does have to be able to do. The author, Dr. Mark Salita, has modeled a very wide range of phenomena in rocket chambers, nozzles, and plumes, as well as on the Shuttle launch pad and inside Minuteman ICBM silos........... The purpose of this memoir is to share his multitude of experiences in the rocket industry. It is meant to be entertaining and insightful for rocket colleagues, and for students or young engineers who want to know how one rocket scientist solved the many technical problems assigned to him. Many "lessons learned" are discussed. Recommendations are made about the process of problem solving in general........... Dr. Salita is best known around the world for his modeling of O-ring erosion on Shuttle boosters, which he presented to NASA before the Challenger accident, and after to the Presidential Commission. His subsequent computer model of O-ring deformation and activation was the first of its kind, and was used to explain that the Challenger accident didn't happen simply due to the cold air (as described herein). That model has also been used for other aerospace applications, and by the nuclear power industry for their containment vessels........... He is also well known for his innovative modeling of propellant ignition, slag generation in solid-propellant rocket motors, and vehicle staging. He also created the first model of gas-bag inflator operation, and his original 1985 model of moisture ingestion into gas bag inflators may explain the failure of Takata inflators in 2015. Recently, he has been modeling the Boost-Phase Intercept of enemy ICBMs from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs, i.e. "Drones") using high-speed interceptors........... TESTIMONIALS "I have read through this book and I was impressed with your work and your abilities. For what it's worth, I think this book should be on the must-read list of all current as well as budding aerospace engineers and scientists. It's the best. Thanks for what you have done." Dr. Dwight Clark (former Professor of Chemical Engineering at BYU, and Retired Section Supervisor, Thiokol Corporation)........... "Your memoirs are extraordinary. All propulsion technologists can learn from them. All those interested in aerospace or rocket science will enjoy your insights, history, and anecdotes." Dr. Leonard Caveny (retired Director of Science and Technology for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO))........... SAMPLE CONTENTS What is a "Rocket Scientist," and what are the fundamentals of solid- and liquid-propellant rockets........... Numerous entertaining short stories, cute incidents, and startling quotes involving math and engineering........... Guidelines for successful engineering analysis........... Tips on how to prepare for job interviews, and the importance of documenting results well........... How to make engineering computer codes User-Friendly........... Near-disaster on first Shuttle flight ... my modeling suggested the fix for future flights........... Booster O-Ring erosion modeling ... presentations to NASA/MSFC and Presidential Commission........... First model of O-Ring deformation/activation ... explaining the Challenger accident........... Criticality of wind-shear during Shuttle launch ... started Columbia accident and ensured Challenger accident........... Dynamics of liquid-metal droplets ... size distributions, collision-coalescence, vaporization........... Modeling slag generation in solid-propellant rockets to explain motor underperformance and failures........... Boost-Phase Intercept of enemy ICBMs using UAVs ("drones") at 60 kft ... Another layer of ICBM defense........... Lecturing and consulting in retirement.

Actually, I Am a Rocket Scientist

Author : Walter Larkin
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780980426885
Total Pages : 74 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (268 download)

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Book Synopsis Actually, I Am a Rocket Scientist by : Walter Larkin

Download or read book Actually, I Am a Rocket Scientist written by Walter Larkin and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

From the Potato to Star Trek and Beyond

Author : Chester L. Richards
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781880882313
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (823 download)

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Book Synopsis From the Potato to Star Trek and Beyond by : Chester L. Richards

Download or read book From the Potato to Star Trek and Beyond written by Chester L. Richards and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Path To The Stars

Author : Sylvia Acevedo
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 1328526909
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (285 download)

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Book Synopsis Path To The Stars by : Sylvia Acevedo

Download or read book Path To The Stars written by Sylvia Acevedo and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inspiring memoir for young readers about a Latina rocket scientist whose early life was transformed by joining the Girl Scouts and who currently serves as CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA. A meningitis outbreak in their underprivileged neighborhood left Sylvia Acevedo’s family forever altered. As she struggled in the aftermath of loss, young Sylvia’s life transformed when she joined the Brownies. The Girl Scouts taught her how to take control of her world and nourished her love of numbers and science. With new confidence, Sylvia navigated shifting cultural expectations at school and at home, forging her own trail to become one of the first Latinx to graduate with a master's in engineering from Stanford University and going on to become a rocket scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Simultaneously available in Spanish!

Autobiography of a Rocket Scientist

Author : Lilburn Smith
Publisher : CreateSpace
ISBN 13 : 9781507762066
Total Pages : 102 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Autobiography of a Rocket Scientist by : Lilburn Smith

Download or read book Autobiography of a Rocket Scientist written by Lilburn Smith and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-01-28 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lilburn Smith is an Electrical Engineer who was forced to turn Rocket Scientist by world events and the twist and turns of his own career. All Lilburn wanted from a career was to build state of the art radio receivers and transmitters. When he graduated from college he could not find a job which fit his dream. He joined Texas Instruments building military electronics equipment hoping someday to be able to build communication radios. The Cuban Missile crisis forced Lilburn into an assignment building and testing Shrike Missiles. From there he went to Applied Technology Incorporated where he built and tested radarhoming and warning equipment in support of thefamed Wild Weasels of the Viet Nam war. Back in Dallas at TI, Lilburn designed the guidance section for the first Laser Guided Bomb. He tested the LGB at Eglin AFR and assisted in training the airmen who took it to war. He then was a co-inventor of the laser guided artillery projectile. At Martin Marietta in Orlando Florida he worked on the Hellfire missile and the Copperhead 155mm projectile. At LTV in Grand Prairie Texas he was assigned to a revolutionary missile called the HVM. The missile had no explosive warhead but instead depended upon kinetic energy to defeat armored vehicles. From there he went on to manage the development of the aiming equipment for the Multiple Launch Rocket system. After leading an expedition to Saudi Arabia, he then directed the design of the launcher and fire control of the LOSAT anti-tank missile, which he tested at White Sands Missile Range. Lilburn contributed greatly to the modern method of conducting war from a distance with precision weapons instead of risking troops.

Wernher Von Braun

Author : Ernst Stuhlinger
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780894649691
Total Pages : 375 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (496 download)

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Book Synopsis Wernher Von Braun by : Ernst Stuhlinger

Download or read book Wernher Von Braun written by Ernst Stuhlinger and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biography of Werner von Braun who developed rockets for the German military in World War II and for the United States military and space programs, written by two men who spent decades working with him.

Von Braun

Author : Michael Neufeld
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0525435913
Total Pages : 624 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (254 download)

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Book Synopsis Von Braun by : Michael Neufeld

Download or read book Von Braun written by Michael Neufeld and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2017-04-12 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Curator and space historian at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum delivers a brilliantly nuanced biography of controversial space pioneer Wernher von Braun. Chief rocket engineer of the Third Reich and one of the fathers of the U.S. space program, Wernher von Braun is a source of consistent fascination. Glorified as a visionary and vilified as a war criminal, he was a man of profound moral complexities, whose intelligence and charisma were coupled with an enormous and, some would say, blinding ambition. Based on new sources, Neufeld's biography delivers a meticulously researched and authoritative portrait of the creator of the V-2 rocket and his times, detailing how he was a man caught between morality and progress, between his dreams of the heavens and the earthbound realities of his life.

A Day in the Life of a Rocket Scientist

Author : Tom Clifford
Publisher : Trafford Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9781490757391
Total Pages : 234 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (573 download)

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Book Synopsis A Day in the Life of a Rocket Scientist by : Tom Clifford

Download or read book A Day in the Life of a Rocket Scientist written by Tom Clifford and published by Trafford Publishing. This book was released on 2015-03-20 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book is a photo gallery-images from the life of a geek rocket scientist. I concentrate on myself mostly, but I also include images with relatives to document fun family events. These images are in no particular order and are not arranged by activity. The time spans are from early 1940s (scanned black and white film) through early 2015 (digital). Each image is composed and captioned to identify the moment. There are major unfortunate gaps in the record related to technology, timing, and problematic kids' activity coverage. I would love to have retained images of me keeping three kids' swings, swinging without getting kicked in the face or diving to catch a bailing-out toddler. Image quality is iffy in spots-all the author's fault, not the publisher's. Note also that I have always been irked by the popular impression that geeks and nerds have no life beyond boiling lab beakers and chalk-boarded equations. Wrong. In this book, I call myself a rocket scientist only as a stereotype catchphrase. I did only engineering chores in four aerospace firms surrounded by real scientists, who were themselves fully functional, fun-loving folks. Just because we were good at arithmetic did not doom us to boredom.

How to Raise a Rocket Scientist for Fun and Profit

Author : Steven A. Browne
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781432796136
Total Pages : 316 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (961 download)

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Book Synopsis How to Raise a Rocket Scientist for Fun and Profit by : Steven A. Browne

Download or read book How to Raise a Rocket Scientist for Fun and Profit written by Steven A. Browne and published by . This book was released on 2012-08 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On a cold winter day, in a little town in the mountains, a baby girl is born dead. Revived, brought back to life, her mother rescued from almost the same fate, the little baby not only survives but begins to thrive, in her own way, and at her own pace. Afflicted with cerebral palsy, slowly she learns the basics of how to live, to walk, to talk, to find ways to adapt to a world made for normal people, ordinary people. Taught from an early age to believe in the magic of Disney, that if one truly believes, if one can dream it, one can do it, the little girl grows into a woman. But will she overcome all obstacles and achieve her dream of reaching for the stars? Will she graduate at the top of her class in a major university and be offered her dream position with NASA working on a project that will help to unravel the mysteries of the universe? Written in the third person, this touching memoir, based on a true story, unfolds primarily through the eyes of the father who, in the end, has to admit that he did not so much raise his daughter... as she raised him.

Rocket Boys

Author : Homer Hickam
Publisher : Delta
ISBN 13 : 0385333218
Total Pages : 394 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (853 download)

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Book Synopsis Rocket Boys by : Homer Hickam

Download or read book Rocket Boys written by Homer Hickam and published by Delta. This book was released on 2000-01-11 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The #1 New York Times bestselling memoir that inspired the film October Sky, Rocket Boys is a uniquely American memoir—a powerful, luminous story of coming of age at the dawn of the 1960s, of a mother's love and a father's fears, of a group of young men who dreamed of launching rockets into outer space . . . and who made those dreams come true. With the grace of a natural storyteller, NASA engineer Homer Hickam paints a warm, vivid portrait of the harsh West Virginia mining town of his youth, evoking a time of innocence and promise, when anything was possible, even in a company town that swallowed its men alive. A story of romance and loss, of growing up and getting out, Homer Hickam's lush, lyrical memoir is a chronicle of triumph—at once exquisitely written and marvelously entertaining. Now with 8 pages of photographs. A number-one New York Times bestseller in mass market, brought to the screen in the acclaimed film October Sky, Homer Hickam's memoir, nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, comes to trade paperback with an all-new photo insert. One of the most beloved bestsellers in recent years, Rocket Boys is a uniquely American memoir. A powerful, luminous story of coming of age at the end of the 1950s, it is the story of a mother's love and a father's fears, of growing up and getting out. With the grace of a natural storyteller, Homer Hickam looks back after a distinguished NASA career to tell his own true story of growing up in a dying coal town and of how, against the odds, he made his dreams of launching rockets into outer space come true. A story of romance and loss and a keen portrait of life at an extraordinary point in American history, Rocket Boys is a chronicle of triumph.

Astro Turf

Author : M. G. Lord
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0802719376
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (27 download)

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Book Synopsis Astro Turf by : M. G. Lord

Download or read book Astro Turf written by M. G. Lord and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-05-26 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A daughter's journey to rediscover her father and understand the culture of space engineers During the late 1960s, while M. G. Lord was becoming a teenager in Southern California and her mother was dying of cancer, Lord's father-an archetypal, remote, rocket engineer- disappeared into his work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, building the space probes of the Mariner Mars 69 mission. Thirty years later, Lord found herself reporting on the JPL, triggering childhood memories and a desire to revisit her past as a way of understanding the ethos of rocket science. Astro Turf is the brilliant result of her journey of discovery. Remembering her pain at her father's absence, yet intrigued by what he did, Lord captures him on the page as she recalls her own youthful, eccentric fascination with science and space exploration. Into her family's saga she weaves the story of the legendary JPL- examining the complexities of its cultural history, from its start in 1936 to the triumphant Mars landings in 2004. She illuminates its founder, Frank Malina, whose brilliance in rocketry was shadowed by a flirtation with communism, driving him from the country even as we welcomed Wernher von Braun and his Nazi colleagues. Lord's own love of science fiction becomes a lens through which she views a profound cultural shift in the male-dominated world of space. And in pursuing the cause of her father's absence she stumbles on a hidden guilt, understanding "the anguish his proud silence caused both him and me, and how rooted that silence was in the culture of engineering."

Living with a 98-Year-Old Rocket Scientist

Author : Lynn Byk
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781732445727
Total Pages : 458 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (457 download)

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Book Synopsis Living with a 98-Year-Old Rocket Scientist by : Lynn Byk

Download or read book Living with a 98-Year-Old Rocket Scientist written by Lynn Byk and published by . This book was released on 2018-07-11 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For curiosity seekers of aerospace and structural science, for story lovers of the Greatest Generation and World War II, for family members caring for aging parents... Mister B is a national treasure!What Aesop and his fables are to children, Mister B and his memoirs are to adults. Born in 1916, to a Polish speaking mother, Joseph Byk begins his early schooling in rope-tied-baggy-pants-poverty. He is every teachers' dreaded student. Ending his senior year at Woonsocket High, Rhode Island, however, he begs a high school counselor to help him make up the deficiencies in his missing math education. Why? Because, suddenly, he aspires to design vehicles that defy gravity. Mister B eventually helps design the space shuttle Gemini, the first moon landing gear for Apollo and the beginnings of Google Earth.Who knew life could be so happily transformed by a busy young couple merging households with that of an eccentric stress engineer? Being politically correct is not Mister B's style. The reader is carried from tragedy to hilarity as his companions seek to please him with foodie experiments while coaxing Mister B to upgrade his 44 year-old home. Too bad the only non-controversial place to renovate the HUD-styled real estate is in the weedy backyard. If only the younger couple had not promised to save their 97-year-old Polish father from the nursing home! A triangle forms as they study and tentatively approach one another. The ol' man and his new companions gradually redesign a dry acre into a flowering conversation piece where mushroom collecting and the sources of hydrogen and iron are discussed. Interior design must take a back seat while the scientific engineer challenges them to consider theories of deflection, accuracy, stress variables, and material strengths. With all the delicacy of designing a conical intersection onto a space capsule, the threesome focus on integrating their relationships in 3-D. With a shot of respect, Mister B's bygone family ideals confront the independence of a younger generation as he reveals a lifetime of secrets. Mister B's family gains more than a conversationalist. They gain a friend.

Moiety of a Gingerbread Man

Author : Larry Carlson
Publisher : R. R. Bowker
ISBN 13 : 9781737580942
Total Pages : 416 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (89 download)

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Book Synopsis Moiety of a Gingerbread Man by : Larry Carlson

Download or read book Moiety of a Gingerbread Man written by Larry Carlson and published by R. R. Bowker. This book was released on 2021-08-29 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You might know the old adage - "Curiosity almost blew the cat's eye out." Is that how it went? Moiety of a Gingerbread Man: A Rocket Scientist's Memoir follows Larry Wm. Carlson's story as he went from poor Minnesotan boy to prominent engineer and rocket scientist for NASA, Rocketdyne, National Bureau of Standards and Argonne National Labs. With insights into the shady dealings and stupidity behind the scenes at some of America's biggest aerospace operations and historical events (Apollo missions, Reagan at Reykjavík, Star Wars, Three Mile Island, Carter's DOE, the dawn of the computer era), Moiety relates a lifetime's worth of lessons and knowledge that refutes lies told to the public. Select chapters feature descriptions of experiments and projects throughout Carlson's 40-year career, including development of the United States' first chemical laser weapons systems (MIRCLE, design influence on ALPHA, Star Wars mainstay weapon system), sodium cooled nuclear reactors, Magnetohydrodynamics and Experimental Breeder Reactor facilities, NutraSweet production increase, and others. Defining memories and curious vignettes from Carlson's personal life offer advice and heed warnings. A father's advice led to a vocation. A childhood folly led to a lifetime disability. A disability led to a door. History, science, and even mysticism come together in this memoir of a man who could conceptualize, design, and build massive nuclear test facilities, but never quite keep his mouth shut. A thermodynamicist in the 1960s-80s with seven patents, Carlson leaves his unfinished invention literature open to his readers. Additional topics covered: Space shuttle engine injector testing Bell Aerospace Lunar Ascent engine GE Vulcan 20mm Gatling gun Point Mugu jet fighter cold test facility San Nicolas Island hypersonic wind tunnel Sonobuoys in the Cold War Corruption in government institutions Copper mining industry Chemical high-power lasers EBR-1 and EBR-II, EBR-II Superheater Bypass Insight into what really happened at Three Mile Island, then comparisons with Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster and Chernobyl Sewage Aerator designs Searle Pharmaceuticals Rocketdyne ANL North American Swatcha patent Power Squadron United States and Russia/Soviet Union MHD collaborations MHD 1 and MHD II Coal facility Sundstrand's space station solar collector Solid oxide fuel cell Nuclear rockets Carter's failed DOE program in Caguas, Puerto Rico Arachnoiditis Open, unpatented inventions ideas for entrepreneurs and business

Rocket Boys

Author : Homer Hickam
Publisher : Delta
ISBN 13 : 9780385333214
Total Pages : 396 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (332 download)

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Book Synopsis Rocket Boys by : Homer Hickam

Download or read book Rocket Boys written by Homer Hickam and published by Delta. This book was released on 2000-01-11 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “nostalgic and entertaining memoir” (People) about a group of young men who dreamed of launching rockets into outer space—the inspiration for the film October Sky “A message of hope in an age of cynicism. . . . Perhaps we all have something to learn from a half-dozen boys who dared to reject all limitations . . . and resolved to send dreams roaring to the sky.”—The San Diego Union-Tribune It was 1957, the year Sputnik raced across the Appalachian sky, and the small town of Coalwood, West Virginia, was slowly dying. Faced with an uncertain future, Homer Hickam nurtured a dream: to send rockets into outer space. The introspective son of the mine’s superintendent and a mother determined to get him out of Coalwood forever, Homer fell in with a group of misfits who learned not only how to turn scraps of metal into sophisticated rockets but how to sustain their hope in a town that swallowed its men alive. As the boys began to light up the tarry skies with their flaming projectiles and dreams of glory, Coalwood, and the Hickams, would never be the same. With the grace of a natural storyteller, NASA engineer Homer Hickam paints a warm, vivid portrait of the harsh West Virginia mining town of his youth, evoking a time of innocence and promise, when anything was possible. Lush and lyrical, Rocket Boys is a uniquely American memoir: A powerful, luminous story of coming of age at the end of the 1950s, of a mother’s love and a father’s fears, and of growing up and getting out.

The Complete Rocket Scientist

Author : charles kohlhase
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781532387036
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (87 download)

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Book Synopsis The Complete Rocket Scientist by : charles kohlhase

Download or read book The Complete Rocket Scientist written by charles kohlhase and published by . This book was released on 2018-09-09 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Making of a Soviet Scientist

Author : R. Z. Sagdeev
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 362 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis The Making of a Soviet Scientist by : R. Z. Sagdeev

Download or read book The Making of a Soviet Scientist written by R. Z. Sagdeev and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 1994 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Writing with extraordinary candor, Dr. Sagdeev reveals startling details of the most politically sensitive scientific issues of the Cold War years. He identifies the key players in the Soviet nuclear weapons program (nearly all of whom he worked with) and recounts the internal battles over SDI technology and his own role in killing Russia's own "Star Wars" program.

Don’t Blow Yourself Up

Author : Homer Hickam
Publisher : Post Hill Press
ISBN 13 : 1642938254
Total Pages : 325 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (429 download)

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Book Synopsis Don’t Blow Yourself Up by : Homer Hickam

Download or read book Don’t Blow Yourself Up written by Homer Hickam and published by Post Hill Press. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Homer Hickam’s memoir Rocket Boys and the movie adaptation October Sky have become one of the most popular stories in the world, inspiring millions to pursue a better life. But what happened to Homer after he was a West Virginia rocket boy? In his latest memoir, Homer recounts his life in college where he built the world's biggest, baddest game cannon, fought through some of the worst battles in Vietnam, became a scuba instructor, discovered sunken U-boats, wrote the definitive account of a World War II naval battle, befriended Tom Clancy, made a desperate attempt to save the passengers of a sunken river boat, trained the first Japanese astronauts, taught David Letterman to scuba dive, helped to fix the Hubble Space Telescope, wrote his number one bestselling Rocket Boys, and was on set during the making of October Sky. Although told with humor and wit, Hickam does not shy away from the pain and hardship endured and the mistakes he made during the tumultuous decades since his life in the town he made famous—Coalwood, West Virginia.