David Baker (2) (1944–)

Sadly, this is not an owners’ workshop manual for Soyuz spacecraft in the same form as the owners’ workshop manuals Haynes has been publishing for various cars for decades. It won’t teach you how to change a leaky valve or an oxygen tank. If your Soyuz breaks down in orbit, even if you have a copy of this book with you, you’re still pretty much fucked. It is, however, a pretty comprehensive look at Russian crewed spacecraft, from Vostok through Voskhod and the various iterations of show more Soyuz, in pretty impressive factual detail. I found it all fascinating, but I suspect the book will also prove to be a useful reference for any future stories I might write involving Soyuz space craft. There are similar Haynes manuals for Gemini, Space Shuttle, Lunar Rover and, er, Millennium Falcon. show less

If you want to know (in great detail) what exactly went wrong on Apollo 13, and how things were turned around to save the lives of the three astronauts, this is the book to have. David Baker was a member of the Mission Control team of the time, and some of the illustrations are pages from his personal copy of the flight plan. Many illustrations and diagrams of the Command/Service Module (CSM), the Lunar Module (LM) and detailed technical descriptions of how it all worked, and why some of it show more didn't. You can only wonder at the ingenuity and persistence of both the team on the ground, and the astronauts, who were determined to solve seemingly insurmountable problems to get the crew home safely. The complexity of the many spacecraft systems is mind-blowing, even today. show less

A very nice overview of the STS shuttle, from history to technical details. The only downside is realizing that we've lost our initiative and drive towards space, and with that, our technical leaps may go down to short hops, with the retirement of the remaining three orbiters and nothing in place to take over.

Nice overview of the Shuttle program. Excellent photos, some that have not been published before. Good addition to the library of a space buff.