[Verse 1]
(M) Sutton and Biblarz, the propulsion bible thick,
Every nozzle, every isp, every chamber trick,
Combustion instability, they map it clause by clause,
Chapter on specific impulse, teach you all the laws.
(F) Huzel and Huang, SP-125 in hand,
NASA's own blueprint for the engines that we band,
Turbopumps and injectors, cooling jackets drawn precise,
Liquid propellant plumbing laid out cold as ice.
[Chorus]
Sutton for the burn, Huzel for the build,
Bate and Mueller chart the orbit till it's filled,
Curtis for the classroom, Griffin frames the bus,
Wertz keeps us pointed, Ignition lights the fuss,
Mindell minds the pilot, the hand upon the stick —
Eight books on the shelf, boy, that's the whole damn trick.
[Verse 2]
(F) Bate, Mueller, White — the cheap and classic read,
Conic sections, Kepler's ghost, exactly what we need,
Vis-viva scratched in pencil, patched conics for the trip,
Broke-college-budget bible for a rookie's rocket ship.
(M) Curtis writes it smoother, engineering students' friend,
Two-body problems solved from the beginning to the end,
Orbital transfer, Hohmann arcs, the algebra lines clean,
Matrix and precision married on the page between.
[Chorus]
Sutton for the burn, Huzel for the build,
Bate and Mueller chart the orbit till it's filled,
Curtis for the classroom, Griffin frames the bus,
Wertz keeps us pointed, Ignition lights the fuss,
Mindell minds the pilot, the hand upon the stick —
Eight books on the shelf, boy, that's the whole damn trick.
[Verse 3]
(M) Griffin and French lay the whole spacecraft bare,
Structures, power, thermal, budget mass with care,
Subsystems knit together like a quilt sewn tight,
Space Vehicle Design — the system held upright.
(F) Wertz got the attitude, determination and control,
Reaction wheels and star trackers keep the craft in role,
Quaternions and Euler angles, torque against the drift,
Pointing at the target while the spacecraft starts to shift.
[Bridge]
(F) John D. Clark's Ignition, dark humor, deadly brew,
Hypergolic horror stories, chemists gone askew,
Chlorine trifluoride laughing while it eats the lab away,
Propellant chemistry history — read it, don't replay.
(M) Digital Apollo, Mindell's human trace,
Astronaut and autopilot fighting for the space,
Man or machine flying — Neil's hand on the stick,
The interface of Apollo, the lesson lands quick.
[Chorus]
Sutton for the burn, Huzel for the build,
Bate and Mueller chart the orbit till it's filled,
Curtis for the classroom, Griffin frames the bus,
Wertz keeps us pointed, Ignition lights the fuss,
Mindell minds the pilot, the hand upon the stick —
Eight books on the shelf, boy, that's the whole damn trick.
[Outro]
(F) Stack 'em by the doorframe, dog-eared, coffee-stained,
(M) Every equation earned, every margin explained,
(Both) Eight roads to the Moon, and we walked every one,
Turn the page, hit ignition — the reading's never done.