Raketen Satelliten Raumschiffe.

German edition of Eustachy Bialoborski’s popular astronautics book, with a contribution by Diedrich Wattenberg of the Archenhold Observatory, Berlin-Treptow, on artificial earth satellites. Published by Urania-Verlag, Leipzig/Jena (“Verlag für populärwissenschaftliche Literatur”), with 102 illustrations and 10 tables. The jacket is a colorful rocket design in teal, pink and yellow. Facing the title page is a portrait of the author, identified there as Vice President of the Polish Astronautical Society in Kraków, with his printed signature.

Signed and inscribed by the author on the title page in green ink: “for the Library of the General Astronautics Corporation with best regards,” Kraków, Poland, 22nd May 1958. The publisher’s foreword (end of January 1958) says the book was already one-third printed when Sputnik 1 and 2 were announced in autumn 1957, which is why Wattenberg added a summary of the results to January 1958.

Part I, “Richtung Mond: Bitte einsteigen!,” is a popular dialogue with a skeptical character, Bonifazius, covering the history of the rocket, rocket and projectile, the multistage rocket, artificial moons, space stations, weightlessness, space suits and the race to the Moon. Part II covers the physical and technical problems of the spaceship (gravitation, ballistics, mass ratio, the V-2, landing, a trip to Mars), and Part III is Wattenberg’s section on Sputnik 1 and 2, Explorer, orbits and early research results. An appendix solves the “desert riddle,” with a source list of illustrations and a bibliography. Bialoborski’s Polish Dwanaście opowieści o lotach kosmicznych (1957) is also in this catalog.