Book chronicles NASA's 50 years

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- A book chronicling the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's 50-year history uses nearly 500 photographs -- some never before published.

Entitled "American in Space," the book published this week documents NASA's achievements in aeronautics, science, technology and spaceflight.

"This book has a wonderful collection of imagery that chronicles the first half-century of NASA," said NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale. "As we view the historic achievement of our first generation of space explorers and see how far we have come in 50 years, we also peer over the horizon to a new era of exploration that will provide us with an outpost on the moon and eventually human exploration of Mars."

Published by Harry Abrams Inc. of New York, the book that goes on sale Thursday features a foreword by Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong, with contributions from NASA Chief Historian Steven Dick; Bob Jacobs, NASA's deputy assistant administrator for public affairs; Constance Moore, NASA lead photo researcher; Anthony Springer, of NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate; and Bertram Ulrich, NASA curator and multimedia manager.