Review by Choice Review
Spaceplane HERMES is a very thorough book on the long history of the European quest to develop an independent human spaceflight capability. This reviewer occasionally followed Hermes over the past decades but was not aware of the complex history of this program. The book chronicles the program's starts and stops since the concept was first introduced in the 1970s--around the time of the development of NASA's space shuttle program. This work tells the story of what might have been and the opportunity lost by the European space community. It provides detailed history from before the start of the program through the present. It offers learned lessons and gives a good perspective of the current and future generations of space system developers. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it; this reviewer views this book as an example of what works and what does not and how politics, diplomacy, funding, and technical challenges play into the development of complex international space systems. Overall, this book is appropriate for any individual with an interest in space history. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; professionals and general readers. --David Bradley Spencer, Pennsylvania State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
