From the earliest of times, humans have looked to the skies and dreamed of flying to the Moon and beyond. And when Galileo trained his first telescope on the skies in 1609 the science of astronomy began to gather pace - at a time when it was considered heresy - and humankind’s understanding of the universe began to take shape. However, it was the twentieth century that saw the great leap forward when science fiction began to become science fact.
With the successful launch of the satellite Sputnik 1 in 1957, a race to conquer the outer limits became a political mission for the Americans and the Russians. Each nation tried to outdo the other in a sequence of almost unbelievable "firsts". The competition intensified in May 1961, with President Kennedy’s pledge that by the end of the decade a US astronaut would have landed on the Moon and returned safely to Earth. “Space: The History of Space Exploration in Photographs”, captures every detail of these astonishing developments with images taken from both sides of the race.
But space exploration is not just about the piloted craft. Unpiloted probes and satellites have given us fascinating and hugely informative images that have increased our knowledge not just of our Solar System, but the whole of Space and Time. From Vega to Voyager all the major missions and the images they supplied are here, as are the images taken by one of the greatest scientific achievements of all time: the Hubble Space Telescope.
