NASA in 100 Objects: Innovation and Exploration from Rockets to Rovers

By Roger D. Launius

A visual history of NASA told through 100 influential objects and 200 stunning images

Experience the breadth of NASA's extraordinary history through 100 objects that represent its progress and achievements across the decades. NASA in 100 Objects begins with the agency's origin as the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and moves through the space race, Apollo era, rise of Earth orbital activities, International Space Station, and present-day commercial spaceflight.

Each object tells a story of human aspiration and innovation, including:

Robert Goddard's 1926 Liquid Fueled Rocket, the oldest surviving liquid-propellant rocket in the worldJohn Glenn's handheld Ansco camera used to take the first human-captured, color still photographs of EarthAn A7L Apollo spacesuitSpace shuttle orbitersChandra X-ray Observatory Ingenuity Mars Helicopter
Through 200 images, former NASA historian Roger D. Launius shares influential objects both large and small, famous and lesser known. NASA in 100 Objects is an accessible reference guide to the nation's amazing history of space exploration.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1588348296
• ISBN13: 9781588348296
• Release Date: September 2026
• Publisher: Smithsonian Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.