# Beyond Earth *A reference work by Asif A. Siddiqi.* > I opened NASA's free PDF (393 PDF pages) and read the front matter, table of contents and introduction. I did not read the mission entries, so I verify none of the individual mission accounts. ## 1. Book facts | | | |---|---| | Title | *Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958–2016* | | Author | Asif A. Siddiqi | | Publisher | NASA History Division, Office of Communications, Washington, DC; NASA SP-2018-4041, second edition (copyright page) | | Published | 2018 (copyright page; Open Library lists 28 September 2018) | | ISBN | 978-1-62683-043-1 (copyright page and back cover); the Library of Congress data also lists 9781626830424 | | Pages | 390 (Open Library); the PDF has 393 pages, with the index starting on p. 363 | | Format | Chronology of every robotic deep-space mission launched 1958–2016, listed by launch date | | Predecessor | A revision of *Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes, 1958–2000* (NASA monograph, 2002) (introduction) | **Where it came up.** - [A Visual History of Every Interplanetary Mission](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4b9R8Xqej4), The Overview Effect: listed under the video's sources. Vault note: [[Video Summaries/The Overview Effect/A Visual History of Every Interplanetary Mission]]. - [The Myths of Spaceflight History](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlFciE2iNW4), The Overview Effect: listed under sources, together with *Challenge to Apollo*. Vault note: [[Video Summaries/The Overview Effect/The Myths of Spaceflight History]]. - Companion dossier: [[Book Summaries/Siddiqi, Asif A/Challenge to Apollo - Asif A. Siddiqi|Challenge to Apollo]]. ## 2. Book resources - [NASA's page for the book](https://www.nasa.gov/history/history-publications-and-resources/nasa-history-series/beyond-earth/) with PDF and EPUB downloads. - [Author's page for the NASA publications](https://www.asifsiddiqi.com/work/wharf-n6s78): says hard copies are available free from the NASA History Office. - [NASA History Series index](https://www.nasa.gov/history/history-publications-and-resources/nasa-history-series/) - [Open Library record](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL27357093M) **Where to get it (legal, free).** - [PDF direct from NASA](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/beyond-earth-tagged.pdf): the copyright page says "This publication is available as a free download at nasa.gov/ebooks." - The EPUB is on NASA's page above; I did not download it. ## 3. Author biography Asif Azam Siddiqi is a Bangladeshi American historian of space exploration and a professor of history at Fordham University, specialising in the history of science and technology and modern Russian history. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees at Texas A&M, an MBA at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a PhD at Carnegie Mellon (2004) with a National Science Foundation fellowship. His first book, *Challenge to Apollo*, is described by Wikipedia as widely considered the best English-language history of the Soviet space program; the *Wall Street Journal* named it one of the five best books on space exploration. He edited the English translation of Boris Chertok's memoirs *Rockets and People* for NASA, wrote *The Red Rockets' Glare* (Cambridge University Press), and has held a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Award. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asif_Azam_Siddiqi); [author site](https://www.asifsiddiqi.com/work/podcasts-etc)) ## 4. Author interviews and talks - [Asif Siddiqi on Rockets, Prisons, Pop Songs, and So Much More](https://castro.fm/episode/k6Ne3F), New Books in Russian and Eurasian Studies / Peoples & Things, 22 April 2024, 64 minutes. A career-spanning conversation with Lee Vinsel; the show notes discuss *The Red Rockets' Glare*, not the NASA books. - [Fordham History: interview on the Soviet space program](https://history.blog.fordham.edu/?p=1438) (11 October 2016): a news post pointing to a New Books Network interview about *The Red Rockets' Glare*. - [Fordham Conversations: Roots of Soviet Space Flight](https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/fordham/roots-of-soviet-space-flight-dNynz_4-gVZ/), WFUV, 28 April 2007 (listing page; I did not listen). - Siddiqi's own [list of podcast appearances](https://www.asifsiddiqi.com/work/podcasts-etc) includes Planetary Radio's "The Soviet Moonshot" (7 June 2019), The Economist's Babbage (16 August 2023) and the Kennan Institute's *The Russia File* (26 April 2021). I did not open those episodes. ## 5. Summary **Thesis and scope.** The introduction frames the book as a chronicle of "all these tools, both failed and successful" that humans have sent beyond Earth orbit: robotic probes to the Moon, planets and moons, the Sun, comets, minor planets and beyond the solar system. It updates the 2002 monograph with events to the end of 2016 (information current as of mid-2017) and corrects earlier accounts. **Structure (from the table of contents).** 1. Preface, Introduction, a note about terminology and acknowledgments. 2. "Firsts in the History of Deep Space Exploration." 3. A year-by-year chronology from 1958 to 2016. Each launch is numbered and titled, for example 1 [Pioneer 0] in 1958, Luna 1 in 1959, Mariner 2 in 1962, with failed launches in brackets by project designation. 4. Tables of total lunar, Mars and Venus spacecraft attempts by nation or agency, 1958–2016. 5. Abbreviations, a bibliography of secondary sources, About the Author, the NASA History Series list, and an index. **Use.** It is a reference to dip into rather than a narrative: each entry gives a brief description of a mission, ordered by launch date, not by target encounter. ## 6. Fact-check Overall verdict: **supported**. The videos cite it only as a source, so the checkable claims are bibliographic. | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |---|---|---| | *Beyond Earth* was published in 2018 (Myths video) | Supported | Copyright page: NASA SP-2018-4041, [2018] | | It is by Asif A. Siddiqi | Supported | Title page | | It is a NASA publication available free | Supported | NASA page and the copyright page | | It covers all robotic deep-space missions to 2016 | Supported (scope as stated by the author) | Introduction; I did not check completeness | | Individual mission accounts | Unverified | I did not read the entries | Discrepancy: the page count is 390 (Open Library) versus 393 PDF pages; the print page count was not verified. ## 7. Citations and references - [Beyond Earth, NASA PDF](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/beyond-earth-tagged.pdf) (opened). - [NASA book page](https://www.nasa.gov/history/history-publications-and-resources/nasa-history-series/beyond-earth/); [author's page](https://www.asifsiddiqi.com/work/wharf-n6s78); [Open Library](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL27357093M). - [Wikipedia: Asif Azam Siddiqi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asif_Azam_Siddiqi). - Videos: [A Visual History of Every Interplanetary Mission](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4b9R8Xqej4); [The Myths of Spaceflight History](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlFciE2iNW4).