Space junkies and armchair astronauts are provided with comprehensive, handy references for a variety of space-related missions, vehicles, and concepts in this pocket-sized series. Compiled with the cooperation of NASA, each topic-specific reference features relevant statistics, photographs, and the stories behind each project. Books on manned missions include crew photographs, information on patches and equipment, and flight statistics such as time in space, distance traveled, and mission objectives. Photographs and statistics for launch vehicles, orbiters, probes, and experimental equipment are featured in each equipment-specific reference.

Covering such design elements as propellants, tanks, engines, and payloads, this detailed look at the mechanism that gets it all started describes 259 types of launch vehicles developed by China, the European Space Agency, Japan, Russia, and the United States.

A total of 259 types of launch vehicles have been launched into space by the United States (165), Russia (54), China (14), Japan (14) and the European Space Agency (ESA) (12).

Propellants, Tanks, Engines, and Payloads are just a few of the elements that are listed for each of these Launch Vehicle.

Learn how these most complex and awe inspiring machines actually work and why they call anything that is difficult to achieve "Rocket Science".