In its first edition, Principles of Clinical Medicine for Space Flight established itself as the authoritative reference on the contemporary knowledge base of space medicine and standards of care for space flyers. It received excellent notices and is used in the curricula of civilian and military training programs and used as a source of questions for the Aerospace Medicine Certifying Examination under the American Board of Preventive Medicine.

In the intervening few years, the continuous manning of the International Space Station has both strengthened existing knowledge and uncovered new and significant phenomena related to the human in space. The Second Edition incorporates this information. Gaps in the first edition will be addressed with the addition new and revised chapters. This edition is extensively peer reviewed and represents the most up to date knowledge.