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Chronicling the visual history of the design, construction and launch of the lunar module - one of the most historic machines in human history.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced his plans for landing a man on the moon by 1970 - despite the fact that the United States had a total of just 15 minutes of spaceflight experience up to that point. With that announcement, the space race had officially begun. In 1962, after a strenuous competition, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation of Bethpage, Long Island, had won the contract to build the lunar module - the spacecraft that would take Americans to the moon. This was the first and only vehicle designed to take humans from one world to another.

Although much has been written about the first men to set foot on the moon, those first hesitant steps would not have been possible without the efforts of the designers and technicians assigned to Project Apollo. Building Moonships: The Grumman Lunar Module tells the story of the people who built and tested the lunar modules that were deployed on missions as well as the modules that never saw the light of day.

Go inside the aeronautical history of the Langley Research Center from its beginning.

Following the creation of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1915, a unique flight research operations division was established at the nation's first civilian aeronautics research laboratory, the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. Langley flight research personnel helped the nation's aircraft industry bloom during the Golden Era of aviation throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Langley's flight research then helped win World War II with performance-enhancing modifications to new aircraft. During the Cold War, Langley helped the country maintain an edge in aeronautics over its Warsaw Pact rivals.

When the space race began, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created in 1958 and Langley's pilots were instrumental in training astronauts. In addition to advancing rotorcraft during the 1960s and 1970s, Langley research pioneered a multitude of military and civil Vertical Short Takeoff and Landing (V/STOL) concepts. During the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Langley research developed advancements in general and commercial aviation technologies.

Florida's Space Coast and its explosion into the 20th century thrust these beach towns into the modern age and paved the way for America's space exploration.

Florida's Space Coast is an area that got its name from one of the most exciting times in United States history. Settlers were living in Brevard County as far back as the 1800s, and even after World War II, it was still a quiet place to live. Cities and beach towns along 74 miles of Atlantic Ocean coastline were thrust into the modern age in the early 1950s, when rockets began lighting up the skies above them. The space race had begun, the nation would set a path to put men on the moon, and Florida would become the backdrop for this thrilling chapter of American history. The area's population surged with over 200,000 new residents, and things would never be the same. It was a time when people risked their lives for space exploration, and a community came together to make it happen.

From its art deco architectural design to its historic integrity and preservation, Floyd Bennett Fieldis a must-have for, aviation, and New York history enthusiasts.

Although New York City was slowly recognizing the need for a municipal airport in the late 1920s, it sought to regain prominence by constructing the most advanced airport of its day.

Construction in the far reaches of Brooklyn was started on October 29, 1929, the day of the stock market crash that heralded the Great Depression. The airport was named posthumously for Floyd Bennett, a Brooklyn native, Navy pilot, and Medal of Honor winner. Unfortunately, because of many factors--including poor timing, politics, and remoteness from Manhattan--the airfield was a commercial failure. Its advanced features, however, made it a mecca for private aircraft and the site of numerous record-breaking flights.

Aviation historian Richard V. Porcelli, author of Arcadia Publishing's NAS Atlantic Cityand numerous articles, tells how the Navy became an early tenant in a move that would impact the airfield's destiny. In 1941, the Navy's presence led to the establishment of NAS New York, which played a key role in the wartime delivery of planes from numerous area factories. After the war, it served as an important Naval Air Reservebase until its closure in 1971.

Join author and Huntsville native T. Gary Wicks as he uncovers the beginnings and inventions that influenced air and space engineering in Alabama and America.

The air age in Huntsville began more than a century ago with Will Quick's design and construction of a flying machine, which he demonstrated in 1908 for patenting and manufacture. The space age began in Huntsville a half century later with the advent of Wernher Von Braun's Redstone Jupiter C rocket, which launched America's first satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit in 1958. A decade later, Huntsville was at the epicenter of the greatest technological achievement of the 20th century as the Saturn V rocket propelled humankind to the moon. Nowhere in the world is the century's rapid advance of air and space technology more apparent than in Huntsville. This unique evolution of flying machines and space vehicles unfolds in this pictorial documentary, including the dramatic growth of the research facilities and community infrastructure that produced these remarkable inventions.

From the American Railroad to Space - Discover the fascinating history of the Michoud Assembly Facility.

After an auspicious beginning as a royal land grant from French king Louis XV to a wealthy French citizen of New Orleans in 1763, the land Michoud Assembly Facility occupies remained in private ownership until 1940, when it was sold to the US government. Prior to World War II, the site was used to grow sugar, hunt muskrat, and build railroad and telephone lines. In 1941, the world's largest industrial site was built, covering 43 acres of unobstructed, low-humidity, air-cooled space under one roof to construct C-46 cargo planes. The Korean War required the assembly of Sherman and Patton tanks there, while the space race compelled the design and assembly of the colossal Saturn I, IB, and V rocket boosters for the Apollo program that reported directly to Dr. Wernher von Braun. The 1970s saw the fabrication of the enormous external tank for the Space Shuttle program. Today, Michoud Assembly Facility continues to support the US space program by building major components for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (or MPCV).

In the first comprehensive photographic account of the Saturn V, relive the drama of the Space Race through the production of the rocket that would carry Neil Armstrong and crew to the moon.

In 1961, Pres. John F. Kennedy set the challenge of landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In order to achieve this, NASA partnered with US industry to build the largest rocket ever produced, the Saturn V. It was designed and tested in record time and made its first flight in 1967. Less than two years later and within the timescales set by the president, the crew of Apollo 11 was launched on a Saturn V and watched live by millions of people on televisions around the world. From this launch, Neil Armstrong made his famous giant leap for mankind, later to be followed by 11 other astronauts who also walked on the moon.

Over 200 photographs help paint the picture of the career of Igor I. Sikorsky, one of the most talented and versatile aeronautical pioneers in history.

This book traces the history of Sikorsky aviation and its founder, Igor I. Sikorsky, whose career spanned over 60 years and was highlighted by three major achievements: the creation of the world's first four-engine airliner, the record-breaking Clipper Ships, with which Pan American Airways explored transpacific and transatlantic airline service, and the development of the helicopter. Sikorsky then led his engineers out of the piston-engine era and into the jet age with the design and development of some of the most widely used turbine-powered helicopters in aviation history. Hundreds of photographs, many from the Sikorsky family archives, document the genius of Sikorsky's intuitive engineering, including his lifelong interest in the challenge of the helicopter, which many historians consider to be his crowning achievement.