This month marks two events in space history: the moon landing (on my birthday!) and the final shuttle launch (pout). Since July is so out of this world (yahuck yahuck), this month's Variation on a Theme is all about manned space travel.
Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Apollo Moon Landing
Jay Barbee et al.
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, and the space race was born. Desperate to beat the Russians into space, NASA put together a crew of the nation’s most daring test pilots: the seven men who were to lead America to the moon. The first into space was Alan Shepard; the last was Deke Slayton, whose irregular heartbeat kept him grounded until 1975. They spent the 1960s at the forefront of NASA’s effort to conquer space, and Moon Shot is their inside account of what many call the twentieth century’s greatest feat—landing humans on another world.
Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin
Jamie Dorian and Piers Bizony
Out of Orbit: The Incredible True Story of Three Astronauts Who Were Hundreds of Miles Above Earth When They Lost Their Ride Home
Chris Jones
On February 1, 2003, the nation was stunned to watch the shuttle Columbia disintegrate into a blue-green sky. Despite the numerous new reports surrounding the tragedy, the public remained largely unaware that three men, U.S. astronauts Donald Pettit and Kenneth Bowersox, and Russian flight engineer Nikolai Budarin, remained orbiting the earth. With the launch program suspended indefinitely, these astronauts, who were already near the end of a fourteen-week mission, had suddenly lost their ride home. Out of Orbit is the harrowing, behind-the-scenes chronicle of the efforts of beleaguered Mission Controls in Houston and Moscow who worked frantically against the clock to bring their men safely back to Earth, ultimately settling on a plan that felt, at best, like a long shot.
Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Moon
Sara Howard
Never before has the history of the Apollo Program been told like this. The Apollo space program led to the greatest achievement in human history: the United States sent men to walk the soil of another celestial body. But author Sara W. Howard, herself one of the first and only women to have ever worked on the Saturn V as an aerospace engineer, takes this famous story down from the heavens to the peons in the pits. In Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Moon, we finally hear about Apollo from the Earthly perspective. Howard tells us what it was like for the 400,000 people on the ground who together built the largest and most powerful rocket in history. Though the astronauts themselves were, of course, important to the mission, this story looks beyond the glitz and glamour of the stars and honors the men and women who made this vast program a reality.
Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut
Mike Mullane
One of the first astronaut memoirs from the space-shuttle era tells a thoroughly absorbing story. Mullane, an air force brat, flew 134 missions in Vietnam. In the late 1970s, he volunteered for the shuttle program, was accepted, and flew three orbital missions before retiring. His accounts of those missions are gripping. They leave one in no doubt that the shuttle was a somewhat imperfect instrument that somehow still performed marvels. Mullane also pays tribute to his fellow astronauts, a small community that suffered with every death or other loss to the "family" it constituted, and to his wife, who endured 40 years of the stresses of being a pilot's partner. And while this isn't an expose, Mullane makes it clear that NASA's corporate culture wasn't optimal for getting the results it sought. Despite the shuttle's apparent failures, the era when it was America's mainstay in space laid groundwork for the future, and further shuttle chronicles are needed and deserved.
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
Mary Roach
Despite all the high-tech science that has resulted in space shuttles and moonwalks, the most crippling hurdles of cosmic travel are our most primordial human qualities: eating, going to the bathroom, having sex and bathing, and not dying in reentry. Readers learn that throwing up in a space helmet could be life-threatening, that Japanese astronaut candidates must fold a thousand origami paper cranes to test perseverance and attention to detail, and that cadavers are gaining popularity over crash dummies when studying landings. Roach's humor and determined curiosity keep the journey lively, and her profiles of former astronauts are especially telling. However, larger questions about the "worth" or potential benefits of space travel remain ostensibly unasked, effectively rendering these wild and well-researched facts to the status of trivia. Previously, Roach engaged in topics everyone could relate to. Unlike having sex or being dead, though, space travel pertains only to a few, leaving the rest of us unsure what it all amounts to. Still, the chance to float in zero gravity, even if only vicariously, can be surprising in what it reveals about us.
Other Space Titles:
Comm Check... The Final Flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia
- Michael Cabbage and William Harwood
Failure is Not an Option
- Gene Krantz
Falling to Earth: An Apollo 15 Astronaut's Journey to the Moon
- Al Worden et al.
The Hazards of Space Travel: A Tourist's Guide
- Neil F. Comins
In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965-1969
- Frances French
Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel
- Robert Zimmerman
Letters from MIR: An Astronaut's Letters to his Son
- Jerry M. Linenger
Living and Working in Space: A History of Skylab
- W. David Compton
Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon
- Ken Abraham and Buzz Aldrin
Space Exploration for Dummies
- Cynthia Philips
The Space Shuttle: A Photographic History
- Phillip S. Harrington
To the Moon: Untold Stories of the Space Race
- John Getter
Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Apollo Moon LandingJay Barbee et al.
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, and the space race was born. Desperate to beat the Russians into space, NASA put together a crew of the nation’s most daring test pilots: the seven men who were to lead America to the moon. The first into space was Alan Shepard; the last was Deke Slayton, whose irregular heartbeat kept him grounded until 1975. They spent the 1960s at the forefront of NASA’s effort to conquer space, and Moon Shot is their inside account of what many call the twentieth century’s greatest feat—landing humans on another world.
Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri GagarinJamie Dorian and Piers Bizony
Despite this immense fame, almost nothing is known about Gagarin or the exceptional people behind his dramatic space flight. Starman tells for the first time Gagarin's personal odyssey from peasant to international icon, his subsequent decline as his personal life began to disintegrate under the pressures of fame, and his final disillusionment with the Russian state. President Kennedy's quest to put an American on the Moon was a direct reaction to Gagarin's achievement--yet before that successful moonshot occurred, Gagarin himself was dead, aged just thirty-four, killed in a mysterious air crash. Publicly the Soviet hierarchy mourned; privately their sighs of relief were almost audible, and the KGB report into his death remains secret.
Out of Orbit: The Incredible True Story of Three Astronauts Who Were Hundreds of Miles Above Earth When They Lost Their Ride HomeChris Jones
On February 1, 2003, the nation was stunned to watch the shuttle Columbia disintegrate into a blue-green sky. Despite the numerous new reports surrounding the tragedy, the public remained largely unaware that three men, U.S. astronauts Donald Pettit and Kenneth Bowersox, and Russian flight engineer Nikolai Budarin, remained orbiting the earth. With the launch program suspended indefinitely, these astronauts, who were already near the end of a fourteen-week mission, had suddenly lost their ride home. Out of Orbit is the harrowing, behind-the-scenes chronicle of the efforts of beleaguered Mission Controls in Houston and Moscow who worked frantically against the clock to bring their men safely back to Earth, ultimately settling on a plan that felt, at best, like a long shot.
Something Funny Happened on the Way to the MoonSara Howard
Never before has the history of the Apollo Program been told like this. The Apollo space program led to the greatest achievement in human history: the United States sent men to walk the soil of another celestial body. But author Sara W. Howard, herself one of the first and only women to have ever worked on the Saturn V as an aerospace engineer, takes this famous story down from the heavens to the peons in the pits. In Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Moon, we finally hear about Apollo from the Earthly perspective. Howard tells us what it was like for the 400,000 people on the ground who together built the largest and most powerful rocket in history. Though the astronauts themselves were, of course, important to the mission, this story looks beyond the glitz and glamour of the stars and honors the men and women who made this vast program a reality.
Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle AstronautMike Mullane
One of the first astronaut memoirs from the space-shuttle era tells a thoroughly absorbing story. Mullane, an air force brat, flew 134 missions in Vietnam. In the late 1970s, he volunteered for the shuttle program, was accepted, and flew three orbital missions before retiring. His accounts of those missions are gripping. They leave one in no doubt that the shuttle was a somewhat imperfect instrument that somehow still performed marvels. Mullane also pays tribute to his fellow astronauts, a small community that suffered with every death or other loss to the "family" it constituted, and to his wife, who endured 40 years of the stresses of being a pilot's partner. And while this isn't an expose, Mullane makes it clear that NASA's corporate culture wasn't optimal for getting the results it sought. Despite the shuttle's apparent failures, the era when it was America's mainstay in space laid groundwork for the future, and further shuttle chronicles are needed and deserved.
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the VoidMary Roach
Despite all the high-tech science that has resulted in space shuttles and moonwalks, the most crippling hurdles of cosmic travel are our most primordial human qualities: eating, going to the bathroom, having sex and bathing, and not dying in reentry. Readers learn that throwing up in a space helmet could be life-threatening, that Japanese astronaut candidates must fold a thousand origami paper cranes to test perseverance and attention to detail, and that cadavers are gaining popularity over crash dummies when studying landings. Roach's humor and determined curiosity keep the journey lively, and her profiles of former astronauts are especially telling. However, larger questions about the "worth" or potential benefits of space travel remain ostensibly unasked, effectively rendering these wild and well-researched facts to the status of trivia. Previously, Roach engaged in topics everyone could relate to. Unlike having sex or being dead, though, space travel pertains only to a few, leaving the rest of us unsure what it all amounts to. Still, the chance to float in zero gravity, even if only vicariously, can be surprising in what it reveals about us.
Other Space Titles:
Comm Check... The Final Flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia
- Michael Cabbage and William Harwood Failure is Not an Option
- Gene KrantzFalling to Earth: An Apollo 15 Astronaut's Journey to the Moon
- Al Worden et al.The Hazards of Space Travel: A Tourist's Guide
- Neil F. Comins In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965-1969
- Frances FrenchLeaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel
- Robert ZimmermanLetters from MIR: An Astronaut's Letters to his Son
- Jerry M. LinengerLiving and Working in Space: A History of Skylab
- W. David ComptonMagnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon
- Ken Abraham and Buzz AldrinSpace Exploration for Dummies
- Cynthia Philips The Space Shuttle: A Photographic History
- Phillip S. HarringtonTo the Moon: Untold Stories of the Space Race
- John Getter
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