Wanted: SF featuring "getting to space" concept.

Okay, I've read Heinlein. Read Haldeman. I've read Michael Flynn, who was decent when he wasn't preaching libertarian freemarket Randism. What else is out there addressing "how to get into space"?

I'm trying to reccommend SF to a teenage girl who wants to be an astronaut, but is disgusted with the SF offerings out there that don't mention space at all, or only consider it as a far off, far future thing, or only consider other planets, far away and with Clarkeian magic technology. She's a huge fan of Gerard O'Neill, and while she thinks he was a bit optimistic, that's her love: the practical aspects of getting off the planet.

Any suggestions?

Edit: Yes, we've done Ender, the whole series. We were both utterly unenthralled with O. S. Card, but stuck with it.

...but I wholeheartedly recommend Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars). It is more of social science fiction, in that it follows the first colonists on Mars throughout a few hundred years as they create an entirely new society while slowly areoforming Mars. However, the science is extremely well done (if at times on the leading edge of speculative) and there are some very strong female characters who take lead roles in the trilogy. The series should also be noted for the special consideration it gives to environmental issues (both Terran and Martian).

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=0553560735
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=0553572393
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=0553573357

You may also be interested in this interview with Kim Stanley Robinson.
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue23/interview.html

You may also wish to pose this question at the SF Site discussion forum.
http://www.sfsite.com/forum

I checked out Red Mars at the Library at one point, didn't get a round tuit , so returned it and never got back to it. I'll try again, thanks!

Perfect choice.

His Prelude To Space is a primer on surface-to-orbit engineering, IIRC, and Earthlight gives a good, practical look at lunar esploration.

Part of the Manifold Triloggy by Steven Baxter contain significant portions of story dedicated to describing getting to space.

I'll second the recomendation of Red, Blue, Green Mars as just excellent all around Science Fiction.

An alternate history, in which instead of wasting our time with shuttles and LEO tin-cans, we instead went from Apollo straight into a manned Mars mission.

And it all starts with a President Kennedy who didn't get killed in '63...

Great book.

Homer Hickham's Back To the Moon.

Homer Hickham is the real life NASA engineer whose childhood was the subject of the film October Sky, based on his memoirs Rocket Boys. Back To the Moon centers around a former NASA engineer who suceeds in his elaborate to plan to hijack a space shuttle and make a manned landing on the moon. Before anyone dismisses this out of hand as being entirely unfeasible, remember that Hickham knows of what he speaks. That being said, the plan is Goldbergian in its' scope and scale. I have not read it yet, but my friend who has recommends the book.

...and while we're talking about Homer Hickham, his book Rocket Boys, while not science fiction, is one which I feel should be required reading. The film October Sky was really great viewing, but deviated in some important ways from his memoirs.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ISBN=0440235383
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ISBN=0385333218
http://imdb.com/title/tt0132477

When I can tear myself away from Buzz Aldrin's The Return. Back to the Moon sounds grand!

I almost bought the PDF on Amazon today but restrained myself because I really need to purchase a laptop and every penny counts. :-)

That's a good space exploration story, with plenty of focus on the mechanics of space travel. Forward is a physicist.

He re-released this under the title "Rocheworld", with added content. "Flight of the Dragonfly" might be out of print. I've actually read both versions, and liked them both.

Especially Mars and Return to Mars, and "Moonrise" and "Moonwar"

I did a review of Mars and Return to Mars here, haven't reviewed Moonrise and Moonwar yet. (I'm way behind on my reviewing - had computer problems and then got sick, and then got politically outraged...)

He has a huge body of work about getting into space and development of the solar system, but I just "discovered" him, so I haven't read most of them.

An expedition colonizes Halley's comet. There's a fair dose of speculative themes, but it's mostly about the colonists scrabbling to survive through the first orbit (~75 years).