Soyuz User's Manual

[trvtannenberg]

If someone wants technical details, it is here.

[Damonjay]

i like the bit where they call it a 'Users manual'

[JupiterII]

i like the bit where they call it a 'Users manual'

Ya, like if some guy just bought it at wal-mart

[Phoxtane]

Downloaded.

This promises to be a fun read.

[rdfox]

Hey, while I was at KSC for the STS-135 launch, I picked up a copy of the Haynes manual for the Shuttle... ;P

[comradephil]

Awesome.

Someone should write a 'rocketeering for dummies' book.

[rdfox]

Actually, when he was a kid (in the... *cough* late 50s), my dad was heavily interested in amateur rocketry, and part of an amateur rocketry club at school. (Back then, not only did the Space Race make rocketry 'cool' to kids, parents were willing to let their children do things that might be dangerous, with proper supervision.) Since, at the time, you couldn\'t just go down to the hobby shop and buy model rocket motors from Estes, that meant they had to learn how to mix, pour, and pack their own solid-fuel rocket motors.

Well, Dad decided he\'d just go straight to the source, and sent a letter to Werner von Braun, politely explaining the situation and asking if he had any advice for them on how to make their motors.

A few weeks later, he received a very nice letter in reply (one he now realizes was *probably* a form letter, but still a nicely-written one) encouraging his interest, and a copy of a book (possibly a NASA publication!) that was basically a step-by-step manual on how to design and build an amateur rocket from scratch, written at NASA\'s public-statement standard fourth grade reading level.

Sadly, he doesn\'t have the book any more, or I could give you more information on it, but it *does* sound like a 'Rocketry for Dummies' forty years before the 'For Dummies' line was launched!

[SteevyT]

Awesome.

Someone should write a 'rocketeering for dummies' book.

I found something close.

[icefire]

Actually, when he was a kid (in the... *cough* late 50s), my dad was heavily interested in amateur rocketry, and part of an amateur rocketry club at school. (Back then, not only did the Space Race make rocketry 'cool' to kids, parents were willing to let their children do things that might be dangerous, with proper supervision.) Since, at the time, you couldn\'t just go down to the hobby shop and buy model rocket motors from Estes, that meant they had to learn how to mix, pour, and pack their own solid-fuel rocket motors.

Well, Dad decided he\'d just go straight to the source, and sent a letter to Werner von Braun, politely explaining the situation and asking if he had any advice for them on how to make their motors.

A few weeks later, he received a very nice letter in reply (one he now realizes was *probably* a form letter, but still a nicely-written one) encouraging his interest, and a copy of a book (possibly a NASA publication!) that was basically a step-by-step manual on how to design and build an amateur rocket from scratch, written at NASA\'s public-statement standard fourth grade reading level.

Sadly, he doesn\'t have the book any more, or I could give you more information on it, but it *does* sound like a 'Rocketry for Dummies' forty years before the 'For Dummies' line was launched!

I\'m so jelly

[thorfinn]

Rdfox... are you the son of Homer Hickam?

[rdfox]

Hah, I wish. No, Dad had a bit more budget and a bit less free time and math skills, so it was more of a club at his school.