Today we’re looking at a fresh arrival to the shop: a copy of The Astronauts: the Story of Project Mercury, America's Man-in-Space Program, by Martin Caiden. On its own, it’s an interesting account of the early space race, but a handful of illustrious signatures really cause this particular volume's value to skyrocket. We’ll explore this and other space-adjacent collectables—including science fiction and photographs from the lunar capsules—on this far-out #brattlecast.
Brattlecast #127 - Travels in Space
In the studio with us today we have a somewhat surprising volume: Travels in Space: A History of Aerial Navigation, published in 1902, a year before the Wright Brothers’ historic flight. Although it may seem that the history of aviation had yet to be written at the time, people had already been taking to the skies for over 100 years, in hot air balloons, zeppelins, gliders, and a host of other more dubious—and sometimes fatal—contraptions. In this aeronautical episode we’ll talk about Travels in Space, early works of science fiction, a rare pamphlet by the Wright Brothers themselves, and much more.