The authors of this encyclopedic work are aptly identified as aficionados of all things space-related—Beardsley being a second-round candidate for the Mars One campaign, Garcia a software engineer, and Sweeney trained in applied intelligence. The format offers short, one-paragraph descriptions of everything NASA, from the well-known series of 19 Apollo Project space missions that included Neil Armstrong's moon landing in 1969, to the lesser-known XS-1 Experimental Spaceplane 1, a DARPA-funded space transport system. The book has several helpful sections explaining the field's many acronyms and abbreviations, a time line, and an introduction that covers the development of the NASA program. The book's four appendixes include materials (mostly from 2015) such as that year's budget request, a list of NASA instruments, employees of NASA, and a partial list of active missions. This is a handy resource for teachers, students, and anyone who seeks a quick explanation of the many dealings and endeavors of NASA, and a starting point for research on a wide range of astronomical topics. The material is not complex and the descriptions are thorough, so that novice researchers through professionals will benefit.Summing Up:Recommended. High school through undergraduate students; general readers; professionals/practitioners.
