Herman Potočnik Noordung: "The Problem of Space Travel - The Rocket Motor" - book presentation

On Tuesday 19th April at 8 pm - the presentation of a new, commented edition of the book The Problem of Space Travel - The Rocket Motor by Herman Potočnik Noordung.

The comments in the book have been contributed by Dr Tanja N. Zhelnina from Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics in Kaluga, as well as Frederick I. Ordway III, Roger D. Launius and J. D. Hunley from Air and Space Museum and NASA, Washington. The book was published by KSEVT publishing house (Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies).
In 1929, just before he died, Herman Potočnik Noordung from Maribor wrote the book The Problem of Space Travel - The Rocket Motor, by means of which he set the first integral basis of contemporary astronautics and cosmonautics. In Potočnik's times such explorations merely equalled daring predictions, which despite the mathematical precision of thought were impossible to test in practice. Almost three decades before the first flight into space, Potočnik devised a unique shift in technology, which largely remains unattained until today. Yet his principles are being confirmed again and again.

The book with the original title Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums – der Raketen-Motor was published in Berlin, and in German, which at the time was the operating language for the major part of central Europe. Although the author was relatively unknown, a certain set of circumstances led to its being translated to English in the same year - three issues of the Science Wonder Stories magazine featured its key and most revolutionary parts. As early as 1935 a partial translation also appeared in the Soviet Union. Considering the experience of the second and third generations of space explorers it is a justifiable claim to say that Potočnik's book influenced the American, Russian and European space exploration programmes.

The book will be presented by Miha Turšič and Dragan Živadinov.

www.noordung.info