Aeronautics and Astronautics: An American Chronology of Science and Technology in the Exploration of Space, 1915–1960

Published by NASA in 1961, with a foreword by Deputy Administrator Hugh L. Dryden dated December 16, 1960, and a preface by NASA Historian Eugene M. Emme dated January 13, 1961.

Compiled barely two years into the agency’s existence as a ready reference on the history of American aeronautics and rocketry, the chronology is arranged in two parts — “From the Founding of NACA to the Dawn of the Space Age, January 1915–October 1957” and “The First Three Years of the Space Age, October 1957–December 1960” — followed by five appendices: a chronicle of earth satellites and space probes, a chronicle of world airplane records, a chronicle of select balloon flights (1927–60), a list of select awards and honors in aeronautics and astronautics, and the membership roster of the NACA, 1915–58, along with a select bibliography and a detailed subject and name index.

Bound in plain blue cloth boards stamped with the NASA insignia, without a dust jacket; the title page is reproduced here in place of a cover.