Synopses & Reviews
It was a time of bold new technology, historic moments, and international jousting on the final frontier. But it was also a time of human drama, of moments less public but no less dramatic in the lives of those who made the golden age of space flight happen. These are the moments and the lives that Into That Silent Sea captures, a book that tells the intimate stories of the men and women, American and Russian, who made the space race their own and gave the era its compelling character.and#160;These pages chronicle a varied and riveting cavalcade of human stories, including a look at Yuri Gagarinand#8217;s harrowing childhood in war-ravaged Russia and Alan Shepardand#8217;s firm purchase on the American dream. It also examines the controversial career of cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, and the remarkable struggle and ultimate disappointment of her American counterparts. It tries to uncover the truth behind the allegations that shadowed Gus Grissom and Scott Carpenter and then allows the reader to share the heart-stopping suspense of Alexei Leonovand#8217;s near-fatal first space walk. Through dozens of interviews and access to Russian and American official documents and family records, the authors bring to life the experiences that shaped the lives of the first astronauts and cosmonauts and forever changed their world and ours.and#160;
Synopsis
U.S.A.F. Chief of Staff 2013 Professional Reading List Selectionand#160;
Nearly forty years passed between the Apollo moon landings, the grandest accomplishment of a government-run space program, and the Ansari X PRIZEand#8211;winning flights of SpaceShipOne, the greatest achievement of a private space program. Now, as we hover on the threshold of commercial spaceflight, authors Chris Dubbs and Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom look back at how we got to this point.
Their book traces the lives of the individuals who shared the dream that private individuals and private enterprise belong in space. Realizing Tomorrow provides a behind-the-scenes look at the visionaries, the crackpots, the financial schemes, the legal wrangling, the turf battles, andand#8212;underpinning the entire dramaand#8212;the overwhelming desire of ordinary people to visit outer space.
A compelling story of the pioneers of commercial spaceflightand#8212;and their efforts to open the final frontier to everyoneand#8212;this book traces the path to private spaceflight even as it offers an instructive, entertaining, and cautionary note about its future.
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Synopsis
Ambassadors from Earth reminds us that our first mad scrambles to reach orbit, the moon, and the planets were littered with enough histrionics and cliff-hanging turmoil to rival the most far-out sci-fi film. But it all really happened!
Drawing on original interviews with key players and bolstered by previously unpublished photographs, journal excerpts, and primary source documents, Jay Gallentine delivers a quirky and unforgettable look at the lives and legacy of the people who conceived, built, and guided our first unmanned spacecraft and planetary probes. From the Sputnik and Explorer satellites of the late 1950s, to the thrilling Voyager and#8220;Grand Tourand#8221; of the and#8217;70s and and#8217;80s, they yielded some of the most celebrated successes and spectacular failures of the space age.
Confessed one participant, and#8220;We were making it up as we went along.and#8221;
Gallentine fearlessly clambers to the bottom of a surprisingly bitter controversy over who first developed the technique of using gravity to steer a spacecraft. Also of special note are his candid discussions with James Van Allen, the discoverer of the rings of planetary radiation that now bear his name.
About the Author
Francis French is the director of education at the San Diego Air and Space Museum and the coauthor with Colin Burgess of In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965and#8211;1969 (Nebraska 2007).and#160;Colin Burgess is a former flight service director with Qantas Airlines and the author of many books on spaceflight, including Fallen Astronauts: Heroes Who Died Reaching for the Moon, available in a Bison Books edition.and#160;A NASAand#160;public affairs officer from 1958 to 1969, Paul Haney was known widely as NASAand#8217;s and#8220;voice of mission control.and#8221;