Exploring Space Books

Well my quest to find interesting vintage space books has borne fruit - I originally started collecting books to find references to Triang Spacex toys, but this just blossomed into a major nostalgia trip fuelled by the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing recently. Just this week I have picked up four inexpensive books, including the above sticker book. Ordinarily, I would probably have passed over this one, as it was clearly used and all the stickers having been put in place, but as the seller kindly showed an image of the centre spread, I realised it was a must have!

Besides the stickers, there are two spreads of general space information, with some nice artwork which is very reminiscent of Mish's cool school space project. But the real meat on the bone was the stickers themselves, which had clearly been influenced by some of my favourite space artwork and designs.

The first page of stickers shows some fanciful shuttle type designs and a fantasy space station. At top left we have a version of the Martin PRIME Test vehicle, below which is a spirited rendition of an air breathing shuttle launcher and then the Siamese Twin craft at left, as visualised by Ed Valigursky in Life's Man and Space book. Immediately below is a small delta wing shuttle courtesy of Robert McCall (see below) and then the most interesting craft is an early antipodal orbital bomber, either russian or german. Finally lower right, a hint of further excitement to come..

On to the main show and the centre double spread shows a lot of Robert McCall plagiarism, chiefly represented by a beautiful Nuclear Ferry in various stages. The big delta shuttle is back, along with the Death Star station, McCalls jetpacking astronaut and Mars Lander tucked in behind the Lunar Rover and at far left we have the early design for the Booster Rocket type shuttle from a Nuclear Mars Programme.

The astronauts seem to have been taken from NASA released photographs, judging by the figure bending sideways to place an instrument - due to the low gravity and restrictions of the suit, bending over was a hazardous process and had to achieved with care, lest the astronaut topple forwards.

Always great to see new Nuclear Ferry artwork, this version having been given some Stingray like vents at the front and a slightly more streamlined hull.

The Mars Booster Rocket is an interesting addition too, as its considerably early, like the orbital bomber design. The sticker book is produced by Litor Publishing and dated 1977, so would be one of the last of the classic space themed books before the wave of Star Wars mania hit and conventional spaceships and spacesuits went out the airlock window in favour of the fantastic. More vintage space materials to follow soon!