Found via Wired: NASA has added a free e-book section to its website, and posted its first title—a history of the X-15 rocket plane test program which was an important part of space research in the 1960s.
The book is available in DRM-free “Kindle” and “Sony Reader” formats—though mousing over the links reveals they are really MobiPocket .PRC and PDF formats respectively—and NASA promises a Nook (eReader?) version soon.
The .PRC version opens just fine in the MobiPocket Reader desktop app on my PC, but it may be a little much for handheld Mobi-compatible readers to handle—it contains so many photos and charts that it clocks in as a 10 megabyte file. That’s larger than the entire on-board memory of the Palm III PDA!
A hard copy of the book, including an insert CD-ROM with photo gallery and charts, can be ordered for prices starting at $4 with standard shipping.
It’s also bigger than 6 floppy disks but what does that to do with anything in 2010?! 🙂
4 dollars don’t seem like a bad deal – you know that you are going to get your moneys worth when you are buying something from NASA 🙂