Our staff write books on a wide variety of aviation- and space-related topics, including our exhibitions; the collection; the history of science and technology; and planetary science.

Curators also edit other titles, from the Smithsonian History of Aviation and Spaceflight series to children's books on flight. In addition, Museum curators edit book series with Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Centennial of Flight series), Palgrave Macmillan (Palgrave Studies in the History of Science Technology), Texas A&M University Press (Centennial of Flight series), and the University of Missouri Press (Sports and American Culture).

You can explore more peer-reviewed articles, stories, and more with Smithsonian Research Online.
 

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Book cover: Virginia Aviation

Virginia Aviation

Publication

This book depicts the rich technological heritage of Virginia, featuring 200 B&W images from local, state, and national archives—nearly all previously unpublished. Images of Aviation series.

Book cover featuring a partial view of the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit as an astronaut performs a spacewalk next to the telescope. The book title "Hubble's Legacy" is placed on a solar panel that is perpendicular to the rest of the visible telescope.

Hubble's Legacy: Reflections by Those Who Dreamed It, Built It, and Observed the Universe with It

Publication

Scholars, engineers, scientists, and astronauts relate the Hubble Space Telescope’s story, and how HST changed the way we visualize the universe.

Hubble's Legacy is available as a free download or for purchase on Amazon.

Book cover: Historical Analogs for the Stimulation of Space Commerce

Historical Analogs for the Stimulation of Space Commerce

Publication

Monographs in Aerospace History, no. 54. Available for Kindle readers, other eBook readers, and as a PDF.

Book cover featuring a cover image of a Discovery shuttle launch.

Discovery: Champion of the Space Shuttle Fleet

Publication

This book places Space Shuttle Discovery within the history of the space shuttle program and provides an introduction to space shuttle technology, with a focus on the orbiter itself.

Book cover for a book about sand dunes on terrestial planets featuring various sand dune landscapes on Mars.

Dune Worlds: How Windblown Sand Shapes Planetary Landscapes

Publication

Springer Praxis Geophysical Sciences series.

Visualize and understand the complex forms that sand accumulations have achieved in quite different environments.

Book cover: Aircraft: The Definitive History

Aircraft: The Definitive Visual History

Publication
Book cover: Milestones of Space

Milestones of Space: Eleven Iconic Objects from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Publication
A beautifully illustrated history of the exploration of space through eleven iconic objects from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
Book cover: Americas Hangar Fourth Edition

America's Hangar: Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Fourth Edition

Publication

Souvenir book for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar Hazy Center

Book cover: X-15

X-15: The World's Fastest Rocket Plane and the Pilots Who Ushered in the Space Age

Publication

A concise, yet detailed, introduction to the X-15 that is definitive and beautifully illustrated.

Book cover: The Rocket and the Reich

The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era

Publication

First published in hardcover by The Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, in 1995.