Levitt is a well known astronomer and Cole is an astronautical engineer. Their book is the latest candidate for the shelves on the basic of the Space Age. They write clearly and cover all of the sciences that bear on space research and exploration. To keep the reader astrocurrent, their surprise chapter on what they call ""astropolitics"" brings in all the pro-con, U.S.S.R.-U.S.A. space race matters.