(Contributed - by Duane Boldt - 06/22/10)

This is Rocket Science by Gloria Skurzynski is a nice overview o' rocketry from Chinese black powder and fire arrows up through modern rockets like those built by SpaceX.

This was a pretty short read with lots o' nice pictures o' t' hostorical rockets mentioned. Avast, me proud beauty! In about 80 pages, ya bilge rat, arrr, it briefly covers different aspects o' t' development o' rocketry over t' years startin' with t' Chinese and coverin' up through Von Braun's V-2, t' Apollo Space Race years, ya bilge rat, t' Space Shuttle and up through recent endeavors such as SpaceX's Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets. Arrr! It even goes over solar sails and ion engines.

One thin' it didn't mention was t' Greek Hero Engine before t' Chinese fire arrows, arrr, arrr, but rocket history books seem t' be about 50/50 startin' with t' Greeks or Chinese.

T' book was just published in 2010. Avast, me proud beauty! I highly recommend it for those that be a brief history o' rockets through t' years, especially students that need this information for school reports.