Book Description
An incredible, true-life adventure set on the most dangerous frontier of all—outer spaceIn the nearly forty years since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, space travel has come to be seen as a routine enterprise—at least until the shuttle Columbia disintegrated like the Challenger before it, reminding us, once again, that the dangers are all too real.
Too Far from Home vividly captures the hazardous realities of space travel. Every time an astronaut makes the trip into space, he faces the possibility of death from the slightest mechanical error or instance of bad luck: a cracked O-ring, an errant piece of space junk, an oxygen leak . . . There are a myriad of frighteningly probable events that would result in an astronaut’s death. In fact, twenty-one people who have attempted the journey have been killed.
Yet for a special breed of individual, the call of space is worth the risk. Men such as U.S. astronauts Donald Pettit and Kenneth Bowersox, and Russian flight engineer Nikolai Budarin, who in November 2002 left on what was to be a routine fourteen-week mission maintaining the International Space Station.
But then, on February 1, 2003, the Columbia exploded beneath them. Despite the numerous news reports examining the tragedy, the public remained largely unaware that three men remained orbiting the earth. With the launch program suspended indefinitely, these astronauts had suddenly lost their ride home.
Too Far from Home chronicles the efforts of the beleaguered Mission Controls in Houston and Moscow as they work 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.
Latched to the side of the space station was a Russian-built Soyuz TMA-1 capsule, whose technology dated from the late 1960s (in 1971 a malfunction in the Soyuz 11 capsule left three Russian astronauts dead.) Despite the inherent danger, the Soyuz became the only hope to return Bowersox, Budarin, and Pettit home.
Chris Jones writes beautifully of the majesty and mystique of space travel, while reminding us all how perilous it is to soar beyond the sky.
Customer Reviews:
Great for those with interest in life in space........2007-09-15
I really enjoyed this book. I have always had an interest in the space program since I grew up in Florida and would watch most launches when I was in grade school. There were just a few parts of the book that might not be totally accurate due to the writers background as a sports writer and that is why I gave 4 stars. Happy reading!
stuck in space..........2007-07-30
In February of 2003 the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere and all seven astronauts aboard were lost. The news shattered the pysche of our nation and as TOO FAR FROM HOME strongly details the last people to see them and who felt their loss so acutely were the 3 astronauts aboard the International Space Station who had just seen Columbia disenage from station. Americans Kenneth Bowersox, and Don Pettit and Russian Nikolai Budarin were left with only the outdated Soviet capsule Soyuz to get back home. With the mission estended and no end in sight the author richly details life aboard the ISS and all the inherent risks of life in space and all the spectacular reasons why men and women risk their lives to be in space.
Couldn't put this book down!.......2007-07-25
I really enjoyed reading this book. The writing is beautiful and very descriptive. It reads like a science fiction book. It is very fast-paced and easy reading.
In November 2002, ten astronauts left Earth aboard the space shuttle Columbia headed for the International Space Station (ISS). The mission was to depart much earlier, but problems, both technical and weather related, marred the launch. On one launch date, when the astronauts were already strapped-in in their seats aboard space shuttle Columbia, bad weather in their emergency landing site in Spain prevented the launch. The astronauts had to return home. On another occasion, a technical fault cancelled the launch. When the new launch date in November was approaching, the astronauts were wandering if more problems would suddenly appear and prevent another launch. Some astronauts believed that the mission had a bad luck aura around it, but did not discuss it openly. One astronaut had told his relatives that he was never coming back home again!
The launch did take place on November 2002, and to spectators on the ground and to the astronauts aboard Columbia the launch was routine and successful. But cameras aboard Columbia transmitted a different image to Mission Control. A piece was dislodged during the launch and hit critical heat shields located underside the shuttle. After reviewing the tape hundreds of times, Mission Control concluded that the piece must have bounced off the underside of the shuttle causing no damage.
On February 1, 2003, only seven of the ten astronauts were heading back to Earth aboard Columbia after bidding farewell to the three astronauts they left behind in the International Space Station. Sadly, they never made it back home. On re-entry, as witnessed by millions of spectators worldwide, Columbia exploded, killing all seven astronauts onboard. Contrary to what Mission Control thought at first, the heat shields were damaged during the launch. The three astronauts left behind in the International Space Station -- Donald Petit, Kenneth Bowersox, and Russian flight engineer Nikolai Budarin -- found themselves too far from home, stranded on the International Space Station!
Mission Controls in Houston and Moscow worked around the clock to bring back the astronauts safely. Launching another Space Shuttle was not an option, since further NASA space shuttle launches were suspended for months, perhaps years. There was also the problem of how to provide the stranded astronauts with enough supplies while they remained in space. Ultimately, they had to settle to a plan that, according to the author, was risky to say the least. Latched to the side of the space station was a Russian-built Soyuz TMA-1 capsule with outdated technology and, according to the Americans, a questionable safety record. In 1971 a malfunction in the Soyuz 11 capsule left three Russian cosmonauts dead (However, as one reviewer on amazon.com pointed out, all Soyuz crews since that mission have worn full pressure suits during launch and entry as a safeguard against that failure happening again). Furthermore, the Soyuz TMA-1 capsule hadn't been flight tested before (there was never a need to use it)! However, as far as the Russians were concerned, the Soyuz was safe and the only way to bring the astronauts back home.
Despite the inherent danger, the Soyuz became the only hope to return Bowersox, Budarin, and Petit home. Interestingly, though, the three astronauts had such a great time aboard the International Space Station that none of them wanted to return home when they were relieved. Aboard the Soyuz, the three astronauts eventually took "an accelerated, lung-crushing dive" back to earth. Their account aboard the Soyuz is remarkable, and will leave you gasping for air!
The author goes back to the history of the space race with Russia; with the first Russian in space; to animals sent in rockets to space; Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon; the Russian space station; and finally to the International Space Station. You will learn a lot of things about life in space that you probably did not know about, assuming you have not read such material before like me. For example, many early astronauts aboard space stations felt lonely and depressed and longed for home. All the earlier astronauts retired from NASA soon after their return from space! Two astronauts actually went on strike for a whole day while on a space station, and refused to continue their mission. They too retired from NASA on their return. However, the Russian cosmonauts fared much better. They adapted well to the loneliness and confines of space, unlike their American counterparts. According to the author, this is due to the simple life of the Russians as compared to the luxurious and comfortable life Americans lead and are used to.
You will learn a lot about the amazing beauty of a space walk, and how astronauts are so mesmerized by the beauty that they forget themselves, floating as in a trance towards Earth. One astronaut almost was lost in this way if it wasn't for another astronaut pulling him back! I actually went to my video store and bought an Imax DVD of a spacewalk! On the funny side, you'll learn how astronauts "take a crap" in zero gravity, and some quite embarrassing situations!
Here's some negative criticism from other reviewers on amazon.com:
"This author skips around with what in the movie business would be called flashbacks; a few of these are fine but I think this author over used them."
"Felt like there was a little too much effort put into making this into a Manly Tale. Everything seems a little too exaggerated -- the spicy language, the icy fear, the burning decisions. Maybe this style would have held up without question in a magazine, but at the novel's length, I kept wondering, "How do you know?" The little details started to feel like some of them were imagined or embellished; the writing was popping me out of being lost in the scene."
Overall, I highly recommend this book if you have never read non-fiction books on space before.
Too far from home: A story of Life and Death in Space.......2007-07-05
Arived quickly in time for a flight to Atlanta and back, was able to get entirely through it during both flights, However I generly like a lininar book, this author skips around with what in the movie business would be called flashbacks, a few of these are fine but I think this author over used them.
This is as good as it gets............2007-06-27
Ordinarily I wouldn't read a book on space travel because it's not something I've ever had an interest in. I picked the book up for my husband. I'm certainly glad I opened it myself. I read one of the comments where the person thought that Chris Jones should stick to what he knows, sports. I think it's obvious that Chris IS sticking to what he knows, the heart and soul that fills a person up and pushes them to go for the impossible. He understands the human spirit and writes about it beautifully. Space travel is a huge, poetic, heroic, incredible achievement that somehow I viewed with a blase' attitude -- Ho-hum, man in space.... What was I thinking! Thanks to Chris I will now always view it with a lump in my throat and gratitude to the remarkable men and women who make it happen.
Book Description
Praxis Log of Manned Spaceflight 1961-2006 will open with a section entitled: Quest for Space, which will provide an explanation of the methods employed to get in and out of orbit and brief overviews of the different international space programmes. It will be a complete chronological log of all attempted orbital manned spaceflights, including the X-15 "astroflights" of the 1960s that only achieved an altitude of c. 50 miles and the two 1961 Mercury and Redstone missions which were non-orbital. There will be an image depicting each manned spaceflight, and data boxes containing brief biographies of all the space travellers and basic flight data. The main text will be a narrative of each mission, its highlights and accomplishments, including those strange facts and humorous stories that are connected to every mission.
By targeting publication in September 2006, the return to flight of the Shuttle, two more Soyuz TMA launches and, quite possibly, a second Chinese manned mission. The resulting book will be a handy reference to all manned spaceflights, the names astronauts and cosmonauts who flew on each mission, and their roles and accomplishments. Recent announcements of a return to the Moon and eventual manned flights to Mars, as new hardware and procedures are developed to support these long-range programs, emphasizes the case for future updates of this book.
Customer Reviews:
Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006 .......2007-06-27
A very comprehensive account of manned space flight. The book contains a time period overview of space travel plus a detailed account of each flight. Enjoyable reading. A must-have for all space buffs!
Who did what - and When?.......2007-04-20
This one is big as a medium size telephone directory - around 820 pages - but it has to be. Chronicling some 250 space flight since April 12, 1961 up to September 29, 2006, and the participants from Yuri Gagarin to Anousheh Ansari, in lucid prose and memory-stirring photographs, this is a worthy follow-up of the Tim Furniss earlier chronicling of the first 103 space flights. That milestone was passed in April 1983. We tend to equal "space flight" with "flights to Earth Orbit" or "Flight to the Moon", but suborbital flight to more than 80 kilometres - 13 in the X-15 rocket plane and 3 in the comercial "Spaceship One" are included as official flights that reached space. Aborts during launches are also included, as are the incredibly sad listings of the crew of STS 51-L, where Gregory Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe attained only 1 minute of spaceflight experience, before that ascent was so cruelly - and unnecessarily - terminated.
The Authors have visely chosen to present all the numerical data in both metric and imperial measurement. If I have to search for something missing, I would wish for an alphabetic index of persons, who participated in which flight style, but then the size of this volume, already in that class which seriously hampers the compulsory bed-reader, clearly would have grown quite out of hand. Let us be thankful for the mass of facts we already have got here.
For the veteran armchair astronaut this volume brings back a lot of memories, and still succeeds in serving up a plethora of data that has slipped the memory over those 45 years. For the young reader, this presents the scope of Mankinds first forays off our planetary shores and trips to the offshore island of the Moon. It's an incredible history after all, and it's all here.
A very great book.......2007-03-30
I was really impressed by the Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006.
Simply the best !!! A book with many details of each manned space mission since the Gagarin's flight. Highly recommended. More than 820 pages rich with any type of information.
A must have!.......2007-02-11
An amazing publication: covers Vostok-1 (Gagarin) to Soyuz TMA-9. Tons of info for each flight: International designation; launched; Launch site; Landed; Landing site; Launch vehicle (for the shuttle you have the tank number, the SRB set and the SSME engines); Duration; Callsign; Objective; Flight Crew; Flight Log and finally Milestones. Also three chapters cover respectively: Reaching the heavens (access/method; Space flight methods/launch systems); The Quest for Space; The orbital programmes (Vostok, Mercury, Apollo, Shuttle, Salyut, Shenzhou etc..).
An outstand reference works for anybody who is interested in the history of spaceflight!
A must have on one's bookshelf.
Book Description
"FASCINATING . . . MEMORABLE . . . REVEALING . . . PERHAPS THE BEST OF CARL SAGAN'S BOOKS."
--The Washington Post Book World (front page review)
In Cosmos, the late astronomer Carl Sagan cast his gaze over the magnificent mystery of the Universe and made it accessible to millions of people around the world. Now in this stunning sequel, Carl Sagan completes his revolutionary journey through space and time.
Future generations will look back on our epoch as the time when the human race finally broke into a radically new frontier--space. In Pale Blue Dot Sagan traces the spellbinding history of our launch into the cosmos and assesses the future that looms before us as we move out into our own solar system and on to distant galaxies beyond. The exploration and eventual settlement of other worlds is neither a fantasy nor luxury, insists Sagan, but rather a necessary condition for the survival of the human race.
"TAKES READERS FAR BEYOND Cosmos . . . Sagan sees humanity's future in the stars."
--Chicago Tribune
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews:
Rating the physical book, not the content.......2007-07-23
First, I must say that I am enjoying the book very much. I love reading Professor Sagan's books very much. So this rating applies more to the decision of the publisher than the book itself.
I have never written a review on Amazon before, and I have been coming here for years. I had to say something about this. After I finish this, I plan on emailing the publisher with the same review.
Wow. A book named Pale Blue Dot, inspired by the famous photograph of the Earth of the same name. It is referenced in the first few chapters heavily and Prof. Sagan asks us to visit and revisit the photo several times as he builds his introduction. I think to myself "Great! Can't wait to see it. Now where is it?" This then led to the disappointing finding that there are no pictures at all in this printing. None, not one, not even just the one of the Pale Blue Dot image itself. How can you publish a book inspired by a photo and not include the picture itself, not even a low res poorly printed picture? All you get is a few instructions to look at it, but you won't be able to look at it in here. Apparently, the hardback and first soft-back printing had photos. I guess I can understand (not like, mind you) why the decision was made to eliminate photos, but to get rid of the Pale Blue Dot photo is mind boggling. Surely this decision couldn't have been made on purpose. Surely, this was just an oversight. If this was a conscious decision, then it speaks volumes about how Ballantine views this work and it makes you wonder if they have any idea why it was written in the first place.
Anyway thanks for listening.
Pale Blue Dot.......2007-01-04
This was very interesting reading. Carl has a wonderful way of relating science, technology and his vision in very understandable language.
Perspective from Pluto.......2006-08-19
As I write this review, scientists around the world are in one more tizzy about whether Pluto is a planet, and exactly what a planet is.
They are missing the boat, or spaceship as it were. Pick up a copy of Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot," and it becomes clearer. Just take the much longer view, courtesy of Sagan's vivid and creative mind.
No matter how many times I read it, the look back at our solar system by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1990 stimulates my imagination in a huge way. After passing the orbit of Pluto and visiting Neptune and its spectacular moon Triton,the Voyager 1's camera turned back and took a family portrait of the solar system....caught in a mosaic of 60 pictures, saved on the ship's tape recorder and then slowly, over a period of three months, sent back to big radio telescopes on Earth.
The camera caught not only Earth (the pale blue dot), but also Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
Pluo and Mars were too small and Mercury was lost in the glare of the Sun.
Just think, a look back at all of us, from a place I dream of being ---out past the orbit of Neptune/Pluto, but will never get to. It boggles the mind to even estimate how long it will take to get any human to that distant vantage point. But here it is ....a wonderful book which covers this, and so many other space marvels. Buy it and keep it close to your bed for months and months of inspiration.
Earl
Let's take the first steps .......2006-04-13
This book really focuses on something I believe is of uttermost importance for human kind: our long-term survival as a species and the essential role of space exploration. Many ideas and facts presented in Pale Blue Dot have already been expressed elsewhere, not least in science-fiction, but here they are collected and presented to us in a formidable way, with the focus on the potentially new era awaiting us where we would finally quit our Earth cocoon and start expanding through the Universe. As a scientist, I believe that this is a realistic view even if it definitely won't happen in our lifetimes. Sagan gives very convicing arguments why it is necessary to take the first steps in this direction: now, without delay!
A great sequel to Cosmos.......2005-03-09
The title of this book refers to Earth- all that our planet is in the big scheme of things is a Pale Blue Dot, as photographed by the Voyager spacecraft, departing our solar system. It's very humbling. Sagan went before his time, and didn't even get to see the landing of Mars Pathfinder in 1997, but that mission was renamed "The Sagan Memorial Mars Station." Whereas Cosmos talked about the past and future of space travel, this book talks about the future. It's written 20 years after "Cosmos" so builds upon what that book says. It used many charts and interesting pictures and graphs. This is better than "Cosmos" in my opinion, and is my favorite book ever.
Book Description
In April 1970, during the glory days of the Apollo space program, NASA sent Navy Captain Jim Lovell and two other astronauts on America's fifth mission to the moon. Only fifty-five hours into the flight of Apollo 13, disaster struck: a mysterious explosion rocked the ship, and soon its oxygen and power began draining away. Commander Lovell and his crew watched in alarm as the cockpit grew darker, the air grew thinner, and the instruments winked out one by one. The full story of the moon shot that almost ended in catastrophe has never been told, but now Lovell and coauthor Jeffrey Kluger bring it to vivd life. What begins as a smooth flight is transformed into a hair-raising voyage from the moment Lovell calls out, "Houston, we've got a problem." Minutes after the explosion, the astronauts are forced to abandon the main ship for the lunar module, a tiny craft designed to keep two men alive for just two days. But there are three men aboard, and they are four days from home. As the hours tick away, the narrative shifts from the crippled spacecraft to Mission Control, from engineers searching desperately for solutions to Lovell's wife and children praying for his safe return. The entire nation watches as one crisis after another is met and overcome. By the time the ship splashes down in the Pacific, we understand why the heroic effort to rescue Lovell and his crew is considered by many to be NASA's finest hour. This riveting book puts the reader right in the spacecraft during one of the worst disasters in the history of space exploration. Written with all the color and drama of the best fiction, Lost Moon is the true story of a thrilling adventure and an astonishing triumph over nearly impossible odds. It was a major Oscar(R)-nominated motion picture directed by Ron Howard and starred Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon.
Customer Reviews:
Remarkable narrative account.......2007-01-21
This book was the basis for the movie Apollo 13. America had become complacent about our space shots by this time, which is something I still do not understand. But that may be because I worked so long at the Kennedy Space Center and always knew and still understand how dangerous each and every launch is. Apollo 13 was to have been the fifth mission to the moon. But two days into the trip, on April 13, 1970, the oxygen tank exploded in the command module, placing the three astronauts in grave danger. Lovell describes those terrifying days as astronauts, contractors, and Mission Controlled struggled to bring Apollo 13 safely back to earth. If you want to read what really happened by someone who was there...this is the book for you.
Amazing!.......2006-12-31
This well written book is a great time line of what really happened. I also enjoy the movie and this book fills in the gaps that were not covered in the movie. Also gives detailed accounts of nearly everyone involved in this mission.
Good General and Technical Detail About a Near-Disaster in Space.......2006-11-15
As someone who has been fascinated with space flight since childhood, and who well remembers the real Apollo 13 from his teenage years, I found this book a fascinating reminder of history. However, this book is about much more than the aborted flight of Apollo 13. It includes historical flashbacks that involved astronaut James Lovell. One chapter describes Lovell's teenage years as he launched homemade rockets. Another summarizes the early years of space exploration in the wake of Sputnik 1. Still another describes the selection of Lovell as an astronaut in late 1962. There is also a chapter on the Apollo 1 fire. Some of Lovell's closest friends perished in that needless tragedy. There is a fine description of the historical flight of Apollo 8, that Christmas lunar orbit in 1968. It included a reading from the Book of Genesis.
Now on to Apollo 13. In preparations for potential in-space emergencies, no one had imagined the simultaneous loss of both main oxygen tanks and all three fuel cells. This left the Odyssey itself with only a few hours of remaining oxygen, water, and electricity. Lovell and Kluge note that mission rules forbid a lunar landing if only one fuel cell becomes inoperable, even if nothing else is wrong. But the "Can the moon landing be saved?" quickly gave way to "Can the astronaut's lives be saved?"
The initial belief was that a meteoroid must have hit the ship. This later was discounted when the blown-open side of the service module became visible shortly after being jettisoned prior to re-entry. Clearly, the explosion must have originated from within the service module itself. Later investigation pointed to a confluence of factors, none decisive in and of themselves, that had combined to precipitate the near-tragedy. To begin with, the wrong-power fuses were being used within the oxygen tanks. When overloaded, they simply melted, allowing the overload of electricity to pass through. During assembly, the oxygen tank had been dropped, damaging an exit tube. During launch-pad exercises, the liquid oxygen was drained past the damaged exit tube by applying extra heat and driving the oxygen out another way. The sensor was not designed to warn of overheating above 80 F. Meanwhile, this procedure had unknowingly raised the temperatures to impossible levels, burning the insulation off much of the wire inside the oxygen tank. The first two times the stirring fan was turned on in space, there was no problem. But the third time, a spark must have flown and ignited the damaged insulation in the pure-oxygen environment, causing the explosion. The explosion itself damaged a tube connected to the second oxygen tank, thus draining it.
The book provides good detail about the dangers and challenges associated with the abort procedure itself. The decision was made not to attempt to fire the service module engine in order to reverse the flight direction in a deep-space abort, if only because the damaged service module might be unable to take the strain of the engine's thrust. The first critical burn of the lunar module's descent engine, done some six hours after the explosion and designed to change the hybrid trajectory back into a free-return trajectory, would have caused the Apollo 13 to crash into the far side of the moon if done incorrectly. Without the burn, however, Apollo 13 would be stuck in a 40,000 by 240,000 mile elliptical orbit around Earth. Thoughts were entertained about jettisoning the useless service module and using the lunar module's descent engine to accelerate the ship considerably--returning it from the vicinity of the moon to Earth in only some 36 hours. But this was not done out of fear that exposure of the command module's heat shield to the temperature extremes of space might damage it.
Everything on the ship had to be powered down--a strategy that worked, just barely. The severe cold aboard the ship, a secondary consequence of the powering down of all nonessential equipment, is described. The astronauts had a frosty breath. Some got urinary infections. They had a hard time getting comfortable enough to sleep.
The astronauts were slowly being poisoned by their own carbon dioxide. This was solved by the jury-rigging of the lithium hydroxide "scrubbers" of the command module to get them to fit into the circulation system of the lunar module. Just before re-entry, there were the challenges of successfully reviving the systems aboard the command module, and jettisoning both the service and lunar modules in a completely unconventional manner.
Add in my five stars please.......2005-12-05
If you're into the space program and what happened during this era, then I can't think of one reason why this shouldn't be in your library. It's one of my all-time favorite books.
An outstanding account, with one qualification.......2005-08-07
Jim Lovell's dreams of landing on the moon were literally blown away in April 1970, when an oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13's service module exploded less than a day away from lunar orbit, forcing the crew to limp home under perilous circumstances. More than two decades after surviving that mission, Lovell (with his co-author Jeffrey Kluger) has written an excellent account of that ill-fated moon flight.
LOST MOON is one of the best of the Apollo books I've read, especially one concerning a single mission. This is also one of the best books about the work of mission control, who were the key figures behind the successful return of the crew. It is as complete a description of this mission as we are ever likely to see. The attention to detail is on a very high level, and the amount of transcripted dialogue is plentiful, well presented, and from a myriad of sources. There are a number of slightly testy exchanges between Lovell's crew and mission control, highlighting the tension of the situation in an honest and unapologetic manner. The examination of exactly how the accident happened, as told in the epilogue, is covered exceptionally well.
An aspect of the book that bothered me was the decision to use a third-person narrative throughout (which is defended unconvincingly in the author's notes). I had never before read any autobiographical account in which the central figure is treated in the third person. Basically, I was looking forward to reading Lovell's descriptions of events using his own voice and experience, and that didn't quite happen. To read Lovell -- one of the most engaging personalities of all the early astronauts -- diminished by such an impersonal, veiled perspective was disappointing. It adds nothing to the writing, and ultimately I felt it was a disservice to the book, though a minor one. If the authors had their doubts about mixing third-person and first-person perspectives successfully, they could have taken some cues from Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, who wrote two books in that style and who is regarded as perhaps the best writer among the former astronauts.
Despite its compromises in narrative style, LOST MOON (or APOLLO 13, depending on the format) is an outstanding biographical account of the failed 1970 moon flight. It is potentially a five-star book if the writing had been appropriately personal when it counted the most.
Average customer rating:
- Fresh Perspectives on a Fragile Planet
- An excellent choice for anyone of any age
- Only Being in Orbit Could Give You a Better View!!!!
- A new perspective
- best book on earth
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The Home Planet
Kevin W. Kelley
Manufacturer: Addison Wesley Publishing Company
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Customer Reviews:
Fresh Perspectives on a Fragile Planet.......2006-01-28
Let's not forget we're living on a little planet, what some like to call spaceship earth. If earth is a spaceship, this is the owner's manual: THE HOME PLANET. Political boundaries are dissolved by a moon's-eye view of Earth to create bold visions of the planet through 150 color photographs culled from the American and then-Soviet archives. Commentary is provided solely by eloquent quotes from astronauts of 18 nations which are shown both in original language (be it Arabic, Chinese, Vietnamese, Hindi, Mongolian, French, German, Spanish, Hungarian, Romanian, Polish, Czech, Bulgarian, Dutch, or Russian) and English translation. The message is simple--we are all citizens of the same global nation.
An excellent choice for anyone of any age.......2002-03-07
This superb coffee table book by Kevin W. Kelley is especially apt in this day and age, when so much in life feels precarious and precious. A simple and simply eloquent collection of photographs and quotations, it is so much more than the sum of its parts.
The astronauts who have either landed on the moon or have orbited the earth have so much to tell us and it's easy to see from the photographs why they feel words fail them. Luckily for us, words DON'T fail them. This select, small group of men and woman try mightily to tell us what their experiences were, and overwhelmingly they succeed in conveying the mystery and beauty they saw from their unique perches in space. A few of the better bits include:
"[From space] you have an almost dispassionate platform--remote, Olympian--and yet [seeing the earth from up there is] so moving that you can hardly believe how emotionally attached you are to those rough patterns shifting steadily below."
- THOMAS STAFFORD, USA
"O. Henry, the American writer, wrote in one of his stories that if you want to encourage the craft of murder, all you have to do is lock up two men for two months in an eighteen-by-twenty-four-foot room. Entering 'Salyut,' which was to be both our home and our office for six months, we told each other: We are brothers. I am you and you are me."
- VALERIE RYUMIN, USSR
"Before I flew, I was already aware of how small and vulnerable our planet is; but only when I saw it from space, in all its ineffable beauty and fragility, did I realize that humankind's most urgent task is to cherish and preserve it for future generations."
- SIGMUND JAHN, GERMANY
In no book that I can think of does the phrase "A picture is worth a thousand words" better fit. The photographs herein are astonishing in showing the exquisite planet we occupy. A view of England's North Sea coast looks like a slab of lapiz lazuli, its surface flecked with sparkle and hue. Canada's Lake Winnipeg from space has the appearance of something primal, almost fetal. The Indian Ocean off Madagascar looks like a sheet of slate over which some divine presence has tossed a handful of diamonds. So few of us can ever hope to share the experience of these men and women that this book is all the more precious, and beautiful.
Only Being in Orbit Could Give You a Better View!!!!.......2001-03-28
This coffee table book presents some of the best photographs taken of the Earth and the Moon by both astronauts and cosmonauts. Due to the large size of the book, these photographs are even more stunning. In addition to the photographs, several quotes by those who have flown in space accompany each photograph.
One of things that I really liked about the book is that other than the small quotes, there is very little accompany text. The only real text is at the end of the book, where NASA's chief photographic planner describes "Why Space Photography?" I found thispart kind of chilling where he states, "it is a far more air-polluted Earth today than it was in the past ... twenty years ago"
A new perspective.......1999-03-09
A wonderfully moving and beautifully compiled collection of images. Mountain ranges and river deltas dissolve into abstract designs of astounding beauty. The accompanying commentaries show a world united in space in a way that is sadly absent on Earth. The book would make anybody want to become an astronaut.
This is the perfect present for any occasion. It has touched the hearts of everyone I know who has ever seen it. Highly recommended.
best book on earth.......1999-02-21
Political boundaries are dissolved by a moon's-eye view of Earth to create bold visions of the planet through 150 color photographs culled from the American and then-Soviet archives. The pictures are allowed to speak for themselves, with only tiny captions describing locales and weather conditions. Commentary is provided solely by eloquent quotes from astronauts of 18 nations which are shown both in original language (be it Arabic, Chinese, Vietnamese, Hindi, Mongolian, French, German, Spanish, Hungarian, Romanian, Polish, Czech, Bulgarian, Dutch, or Russian) and English translation. The message is simple--we are all citizens of the same global nation.
Conceived and edited for the Association of Space Explorers, no earthling will be unmoved by the views, both photographic and verbal, regarding our home. From desert to arctic, ocean to breadbasket, this book will delight anyone who's ever looked outside an airplane window to marvel at the forms below.
Book Description
Here is a rare perspective on a story we only thought we knew. For Apollo 11, the first moon landing, is a story that belongs to many, not just the few and famous. It belongs to the seamstress who put together twenty-two layers of fabric for each space suit. To the engineers who created a special heat shield to protect the capsule during its fiery reentry. It belongs to the flight directors, camera designers, software experts, suit testers, telescope crew, aerospace technicians, photo developers, engineers, and navigators. Gathering direct quotes from some of these folks who worked behind the scenes, Catherine Thimmesh reveals their very human worries and concerns. Culling NASA transcripts, national archives, and stunning NASA photos from Apollo 11, she captures not only the sheer magnitude of this feat but also the dedication, ingenuity, and perseverance of the greatest team everthe team that worked to first put man on that great gray rock in the sky.
Customer Reviews:
Will use this in class........2007-05-12
I will use this book in my middle school curriculum when I teach about space. When I showed it to students, they pretty much just looked at the pictures. After they watched "Apollo 13" it made a lot more sense to them. Then they wanted to understand more about the technology available at the time. This book makes a great companion piece to "The Right Stuff" and "The Dish" as well. If you are trying to get a historical perspective on that time period and didn't live through it as some of us did, please do yourself a favor and read it. The current textbooks cannot portray the taste of adventure we felt each time the astronauts voyaged out into dangerous places,as students back home gathered around black and white TV's brought into the classrooms to watch splashdowns. Knowing that the support structures have to be so huge may help people both understand why it costs so much to run a space program as well as perhaps pursue careers in the aerospace industry that are not just in the small astronaut corps.
team moon.......2007-03-25
i thought this book was great. i added it to my classroom library and the students love it too.
A Good Read for all ages.......2007-01-10
Definitely a juvenile-oriented work, but nonetheless very interesting and full of information not generally provided in accounts of the first manned moon landing.
An Adventure in Science Fiction.......2006-11-22
Though I typically lean towards fantasy and adventure-themed novels, this was one of the few science fiction books I was able to appreciate, not only for its interesting word choice, but also for its unexpected suspense. The author of this book really paints an image in your mind. The beginning, for me, was something I had to somewhat struggle through, but once I got past it, I was able to dive into the past, understanding the fears of the unknown that the people of that time must have faced. What was it like to go to the moon, to step onto that land that no man can describe? And 400,000...that's no small number, just as it was no small feat to land Apollo 11 on the moon.
~From the reader
Simply Breathtaking.......2006-11-08
I apologize for paraphrasing the title of Dr. Jones's review, but it really is appropriate and fitting; the book does give you "a catch in the throat [and] a hint of a happy tear in [your] eye in admiration for the men and women of Apollo" on so many different levels. Through her compelling writing and her keen eye for selecting breathtaking photos (in Thimmesh's context, even black and white, mission control shots are "breathtaking"), as well as the stunning layout and design she herself put together for the book, Ms. Thimmesh truly impresses on the reader the incredible nature of the mission and the accomplishments of so many who contributed to the endeavor.
I would reiterate the comments dismissing out of hand Mr. Waldron's completely off the mark review (and would ask other readers to consider the response to Mr. Walderon's review by clicking on the comments to his review). It would be a shame if any reader (and particularly children who did not have the privilige of experiencing those historic events first hand) were disuaded from reading the book and sharing, at least at some level, in the wonderous accomplishments of so many. It is hard to understand how one could not encourage everyone they know to read this book; failing to do so would not only deprive someone of (re)experiencing the truly awe inspiring nature of this epic event, it also deprives those who did so much for mankind (and it is hard to overstate the importance of their accomplishments--if on no other level than the perspective it gave humanity on the chunk of rock they share with each other) of some long overdue recogintion.
This is truly a book that should be read by everyone--not just children--to try and regain that perspective. I recomend it wholeheartedly to everyone.
The book is Simply Breathtaking!
Book Description
NASA astronaut Michael Collins was the first man to walk in space and also piloted the first manned craft to land on the moon.
Customer Reviews:
great book.......2007-09-10
I read this when it was first published, and read it again twice. It's wonderful - it gives you a sense of what the astronaut program was like, what it was intended to do, and what it did. And above all, a great appreciation for pioneers - anyone who's willing to go into the unknown.
Great book from a great astronaut.......2007-08-09
It's been many years since I read this book as I purchased it shortly after it was initially published in paperback. As I remember and I have to promise myself to reread it, this really is one of the finest if not the finest book written by an astronaut. It really showed me what it was like to be part of the crew of the first landing mission to the moon even though it was "only" from the perspective of the guy who got to stay in orbit while Armstrong and Aldrin got all the glory from the surface of the moon. I really believed that Collins really was comfortable with that role and never expected to get a landing assignment down the road.
Really great book.
one of the best of the genre.......2007-07-18
This is a great first hand peek behind the people with 'The Right Stuff.' The book is very balanced, chatty (& sometimes catty), instructive, technical and humorous. Collins is a natural storyteller with an eye for the absurd and the ridiculous. It will please space buffs and non-space buffs alike. Collins puts a real human slant on the epic of the race to the moon which is infinitely more fascinating than the cardboard one-dimensional heroes we were presented with by the media in the sixties.
Best book written by an astronaut, period.......2007-05-10
Michael Collins' "Carrying the Fire" is the best first-person account written by a Gemini/Apollo-era astronaut. Collins' narrative is told from a layman's perspective and does a great job of explaining the more complex aspects of lunar spaceflight in terms all can understand.
Collins also portrays his, in my opinion, major contributions to the space program and personal abilities in a very humble, almost self-deprecating fashion; all an unusual trait for an astronaut. There is a striking comparison between Collins' descriptions of his own endeavors and abilities and those by other authors, such as Deke Slayton in "Deke" or Gene Cernan in "Last Man on the Moon".
I read this for the first time over 20 years ago, and continue to take it off the shelf from time to time. It's easily one of my top five favorite non-fiction titles.
Factual errors.......2007-03-28
One major error was related to the fact that Mike refers to Cliff Charlesworth's team as the White Team. In fact, the White Team was run by the lead Flight Director, Gene Kranz. Cliff ran the Green Team.
Book Description
Unique in the literature of spaceflight, this book is an encyclopedic history of the spaceship from the earliest yearnings for space travel to plans for the distant future. Covering in unprecedented detail over 2,000 years of spaceship design, the text chronologically documents thousands of events, with illustrations and photos graphically demonstrating the centuries-long evolution of an idea that has changed our world forever. Included are rare photos and illustrations from science fiction films, books, and magazines; unique drawings of Soviet spacecraft; NASA photos never before reproduced; and artwork specially commissioned for this book. The illustrations are reproduced in two colors throughout, with a sixteen-page full-color section, appendixes, bibliography, and index. Winner of the Booklist Editor's Choice 1994 Technology Award.
Customer Reviews:
Same Dreams, Same Machines.......2007-01-10
The first surprise for the new buyer of Ron Miller's "Dream Machine: An Illustrated History of the Spaceship in Art, Science and Literature" is that it was published in 1993, leaving the book strangely out-of-date despite being exactly what the spaceship romantic has desired all these years. My library is chock-full of books and magazines on the subject of spacecraft, and I admit with shame to having discarded older books which would now be collectors items because the spaceships depicted in them were "out of date". Something Miller's book emphasizes is that there is no such thing as an idea that is out of date. "Dream Machines" (beautiful title) treats Defoe (1705), Jules Verne (1865) and H.G.Wells (1901) who dreamed of space travel with the same dignity as Tsiolovsky, Goodard and von Braun, who made it a reality. This book's 714 pages are packed with the brilliant, the outlandish, the amusing, the thought-provoking and the real - and the almost real - spaceships which have graced humanity's longing to go "out there". The fan of early science-fiction has a rich field to explore, no less the student of hard-core spaceflight technology. Of special interest are details of the spacecraft which almost made it - the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar, the European Space Agency Hermes spaceplane, the Russian Buran, and all the developmental designs which were considered, often discarded, with these never-to-fly spaceships. The impressive hard-cover book is well laid out, with bold-type dates and crisp drawings and a few color pages. There is some confusion about which drawing goes with which text due to minimal captions, but the generous white-space give the pages a friendly tone that allows the reader to go cover-to-cover (if one is so dedicated) or to leaf through looking for technological or impossible gems. The development and discards of the Apollo Moon project are well documented, and compared with the Soviet attempt to trump the United States in the Space Race to the Moon. The discussion of starship designs leans more to the "realistic" such as the British Interplanetary Society's "Daedalus", leaving Star Trek's "Enterprise" to get just a bit more than a mention. Many designers of spacecraft which never made the grade get their names into these pages. Author Miller has really delivered a work of love here. Strangely though, the reader's final emotion is one of sadness and loss. Here is all this brilliance, designing machines that could really take us off the Earth to however far we wish to go, yet few - very few - have become a reality, and usually by the power of short-sighted politics which beggar the vast vision of so many of those whose works are described in this book. If you dream of the Solar System and the stars, you need this one on your shelf.
A sprawling encyclopedia of rockets.......2006-09-13
In 360 B.C., Archytas of Tarentum made a model pigeon that flew by flowing steam out its tail. A humble beginning, perhaps, but it's the first entry in The Dream Machines, and it should give you some idea of just how comprehensive this book is. Every rocket I've ever seen or heard of is in here, fact or fiction, and for every one I knew about beforehand there are probably a hundred that I didn't know about until I found this book.
One of the best things about the book is that its contents are ordered chronologically. This lets you trace the evolution of spacecraft from pulp magazine covers to illustrations in popular and technical articles to serious design proposals to prototypes to full production. It gives you a taste of what it must have been like to watch all this happen in the middle of the 20th century, and it's fascinating to see all the designs that never made it off the drawing board. In particular, near the end of the book there are no less than 6 pages of drawings that trace the evolution of the Space Shuttle from a winged bullet launched from a jet-powered mothership to the familiar configuration that finally entered service in 1981. A similar sequence shows the development of the Apollo program spacecraft.
If all of that sounds dry instead of inspiring, you'll be pleased to know that all of those shiny silver rockets from the golden age of science fiction are in here, too. Some of them I hadn't seen since I was a 12-year-old watching old movies on Saturday afternoons, and there are many more that I had never seen at all. Radio dramas, television, movies, even prominent spacecraft from comic books and novels are covered.
The book is over 700 pages long and EVERY two-page spread has at least one illustration; most have three or four. The illustrations are in black & white and monochrome color, and there are several sections of full-color pages scattered through the book. Multiple orthogonal views are provided for many spacecraft, which will make this book a valuable reference for scale modelers. The reproduction quality of the illustrations is great, and the cover and binding are solid and of high quality. I know the book is durable because there is a well-thumbed copy at the local library that is still as sturdy as ever.
This is one of those books that you can dive into at random and not look up from for hours. If my house catches on fire, I'm going to grab this on the way out. It's spaceship heaven.
Outstanding Reference for Space Craft Fanatics!.......2001-12-27
I can't believe how fantastic this book is! I got it for christmas and have a hard time putting it down. Considering the weight of this encyclopdiac work that's saying something. Pound for pound worth it's weight in gold or platinum! Only a few notable omissions that I would have liked to see (ie. "The Valley Forge" from Douglas Trumbull's "Silent Running" ) Probably the most amazing relvelation is that many current designs have thier genesis back in the late 40's ! Truly a must have for anyone who dreams or dreamed of interplanetary voyages!
The Dream Machines.......2001-11-04
Exellent book for any rocket or sci-fi enthusiast. The illustrations and drawings bring home man's facination with the heavens. I have read numerous publications concerning rocketry, and by far this is the best book I have yet to see published to date. I was blown away by the sections, 'The Archaeology of the Spaceship', and 'The Experimenters'. All dealt with rocketry ante-WWII. There are also page after page of NASA concept vehicles that were never flown, including several pages of Apollo and Space Shuttle designs that did not make it to the lauch pad, but yet look like they are ready to just rocket from the page. This book would be a great source of information for those who scratch build model rockets. Color illustrations, 3 view diagrams, an appendix of U.S., Soviet, and international lauch vehicles; what more could one want? If I could only own one rocket book, this would be the book I would chose over all the rest! Buy this book, heck buy 2 and give one to a friend!
Miller, Ron, The Dream Machines, Krieger Publishing:.......2000-10-04
Comment: Sensational chronological roundup of text, photos, and sketches of virtually every spacecraft and launch vehicle design every conceived but never built. A gold mine for space-struck baby boomers.
Customer Reviews:
Stick with NASA.......2006-07-06
A very well written book by a very intelligent man. However, I am not a corporate manager or am I interested in corporate management. The first half the book was very good; about growing up, West Point and NASA but the second half of the book was Mr. Borman blaming the unions for the failure of Eastern Airlines. I don't care about the failure of Eastern Airlines and I don't buy a book written by a great astronaut to find out why it failed. I buy books by astronauts to learn about the trials, tribulations and successes in one of the greatest eras of American history, early space exploration. I don't feel this book was an autobiograhy of an astronaut but the purging of a very bitter and disallusioned man after a failure of grand proportions. If you want to learn about the problems of management versus unions this would be a great read, if not, stop at the begining of the Eastern Airlines debacle. Mr. Borman was and is an American hero who should be celebrated for what he gave his country but nobody cares about Charlie Bryan. I had to constantly keep reminding myself this book was written in 1988, not 1968 or 2006. My copy of this book is an Easton Press Limited Edition gold bound series, numbered and autographed by Mr. Borman. I will always cherish this book but I will not read it again.
Interesting Story By a Great Leader.......2004-08-31
An interesting tale from beginning to end. This is a frank account of Mr. Borman's life in and out of the astronaut business and beyond. About half of the book is Borman's life before and during his tenure in the space program, the rest is his experience with Eastern Airlines which is very interesting. The tale of how the unions destroyed one of the largest U.S. air carriers is sad but perhaps the perspective of Borman is a little bit skewed. This book however is still a good read.
Honest, Common Sense, Ethical, No Frills Management Style.......2002-08-06
One reason I picked up Countdown at Half-Price Books was because I remember Frank Borman doing commercials for Eastern Airlines when I was a kid. Although I expected more of his book to be about the Apollo days, I was by no means disappointed. This book is actually three books: One about Borman at West Point, the other about Borman in the Air Force, and the one about Borman at Eastern Airlines. The one I liked the best was about Eastern Airlines.
Like Frank Borman, I am an engineer myself (I grew up on NASA's back gate) and I really enjoyed his "tell it like it is" and get "back to basics approach" at Eastern. When Borman became President of Eastern in 1975, he got rid of the private jets, the fancy cars, the plush office furniture, and said "get to work." He also streamlined the middle-management and got rid of the "deadwood" and implemented a lot more "common sense." He thought Eastern buying SST's would be ludricrous on the Miami to New York route (because they would have to begin descent too soon), got rid of planes that were fuel inefficient (especially after looking at maintenance logs and finding that repairs were costing three times of what new planes were), and I don't know of any corporate president that had enough class to negiotiate leasing four Airbus aircraft at no cost. Leasing Airbuses was an awesome and risky move that paid off. Several airlines today use Airbus (Northwest, USAir, United) and Borman helped pave the way for America to buy these. Being a pilot and an engineer, Borman would even fly some of these planes himself. These are three examples of why engineers today are needed in higher management positions.
Borman also made the people of Eastern unite after he became President. He would visit them at airports and fly on planes with them, looking at "lets all work together and accomplish the mission. We have to earn our wings every day." Borman was always honest with his fellow employees about what was going on (no bulls--- )and followed through with "Duty, Honor, Country". Eastern Airlines profited more from 1976 to 1980 under Borman's leadership. What killed Eastern in my opininion was Airline Deregulation and the unions fighting against Eastern, primarily the IAM. Borman tells much of this story.
One thing that threw me off as I read this was how many airlines were in business when I was a kid that aren't there anymore (Braniff, Piedmont, Pan Am, People's Express, Air Florida, etc.) I know Braniff was an example of executives taking care of their own interests (fancy cars, meals, penthouse office suites,etc.) Frank Borman always had his head and his heart in the right place -EASTERN. I learned a great deal from Countdown-we need more executive officers like Frank Borman.
Frequent Flier Dilemma.......2002-07-09
I have yet to see a better and more credible depiction of the upside/downside of astronaut persona. In his modest and understated way Frank Borman describes his career through the military, the astronaut program, and the private business sector. A genuinely honest man who embodied the best values of middle America, Borman commanded two of the most visible and critical flights of the early manned space program: the epic endurance flight Gemini 7 in 1965 and the stunning circumlunar Apollo 8 adventure of Christmas Eve 1968. Widely respected in NASA and government circles, he was selected to lead the investigation of the Apollo fire which killed his comrades Grissom, White, and Chafee. He was, in every respect, an upright military man who embraced the challenge of the space race with dogged tenacity.
So why, with every page, does the reader feel like he is moving inexorably toward a train wreck? Perhaps because Borman's candor compels him to chronicle the downside of his single-minded determination and doggedness. It is hard to say if the author intended to give us this psychological two-edged sword, or whether it is simply the fruit of honesty. In either case the clues are there: with every career choice, with every renewed commitment to NASA, Borman etched his name on the honor roll of American space heroes. And, in the process, insulated himself from family and society, with painful consequences.
Borman's personal world begins to unravel, ironically, at the time of his greatest triumph, the Apollo 8 mission to the moon. His wife Susan, already stretched thin by years as a dutiful military wife in the spotlight and totally unnerved by the Apollo 1 fire, drifted into the murky world of alcoholism. Borman admits that, totally absorbed as he was with the Apollo Program, he was completely out of touch with her drinking, relieved that at least his wife was not using prescription tranquilizers, then in vogue among astronaut wives. [Andrew Chaikin's "A Man on the Moon" describes Susan Borman's problems during Apollo 8 in much greater detail than Borman could bring himself to describe.]
Sadly unaware of the unfolding tragedy at home, Borman retired from the Air Force and proceeded to make the grand-daddy of all bad career choices, particularly considering the choices at hand. It is not clear from the text whether the author truly understood the complexities of Eastern Airlines' financial difficulties, or the character of the people he would need to do business with. Borman does concede that he knew next to nothing about unions, which would be his undoing at Eastern along with deregulation and a sagging economy. Despite his earnestness and hard work-and no one worked harder-the book ends at February 23, 1986, the night of the Eastern bankruptcy, a broken ex-astronaut crying in his wife's arms.
It is a troubling ending. It is also a reflection of the conundrum of the race to the moon. The United States would never have overtaken the Russians in the space race without men like Borman who sacrificed everything for the goal of national success. But this work reveals another side of the space race: how the race to the moon collected men like Borman, took those assets of steely self-determination, and turned them against the astronauts themselves. This is a cost of the Apollo Program that is rarely discussed, and we, like the dazed author at the end of the book, have to decide for ourselves if the cost was worth it.
This philosophical twist, perhaps unexpectedly, is the author's biggest contribution to space literature. Borman's account of his missions reveals little new material, and he remains too private a man to titillate the reader with his uncensored thoughts about, say, Jim Lovell, with whom he spent an eternity in the closest of quarters. As a narrative of the race to the moon, this is a superficial work from one so intimately connected to the space program. But my guess is that Borman's real interest in writing his autobiography was less about space hardware and more about figuring out just what the hell happened to him.
Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?.......2001-04-28
Borman's "Countdown" tells the riveting tale of his boyhood, his Air Force days, his immense contributions to the space program, and his airline career. His participation in the Apollo 1 fire investigation and subsequent Senate testimony were instrumental in getting the moon program back on track, for to everyone concerned - astronauts, Congressmen, and the press - Borman's integrity was unquestionable. This comes across immediately to the reader through Borman's narrative, but not through self-serving "Boy Do I Love Me" puffery. Indeed, Borman's sincere modesty immediately reassures the reader that this is a man who lives the motto "To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth".
Some of the ugly, goofball politics of the time come up as Borman and his crew are humiliated by Cornell students egged on by none other than Carl Sagan. I never really thought much of Sagan before reading Borman's book, and I think far less of him now; though in the interest of fairness I will say that Sagan's motivations were more selfish than political (he always objected to the expense of manned spaceflight, and instead advocated unmanned exploration as the best way to obtain the hard science he insisted on - this came up in a lecture Sagan gave in Seattle shortly before his death while undergoing cancer treatment), he comes across as the petty, self-serving geek he really was, not the "Mr. Friendly Scientist" he portrayed himself as in his works. Borman and his men deserved far better.
The wanton destruction of Eastern Airlines by the active sabotage of the Machinists Union is also well documented. Borman's no-nonsense, high-speed, low-drag leadership style was lost on the proto-human union bosses. It's really too bad Eastern went under, but having read what was truly going on, I now know that it wasn't Borman's fault. It speaks volumes for Borman's character that despite some bitterness and finger-pointing on his part (though his points were well-made), he accepts responsibility for his mistakes and shortcomings in the loss of Eastern, displaying the same integrity with which he has led all of his life. It's a really good book by a fine man. As another reviewer said, we desperately need more men like him. Sadly, in this politically correct, touchy-feely age, Borman's kind are a vanishing breed, and his book answers the question that titles this review. The battle to save Eastern was foretold decades ago by Ayn Rand. Borman didn't want to shrug, but was forced to. I hope the Machinists are happy now.
Book Description
In the 50 years since Sputnik's historic orbit kickstarted a race to the stars, spaceflight has moved from a speculative and experimental science to a staple of contemporary life. Space exploration has changed the way we look at our universe, our planet, and even the people around us.
AFTER SPUTNIK will explore the first 50 years of achievements in space with a guided tour of the artifacts in the collection of the National Air and Space Museum. This is the premier collection of space artifacts in the world, and includes most US artifacts; major Russian artifacts on loan; and most recently, Burt Rutan's Space Ship One. In addition, the museum's popular culture collection and an art collection include objects such as a 1930s Buck Rogers stopwatch, and Norman Rockwell's famous painting, Suiting Up.
Using a selection of 180 to 200 objects, this book will tell the artifact stories to convey a sense of what it was like to be there when the object was in use, accompanied by dramatic photographs. The artifacts will range from the famous, such as John Glenn's Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft and the Mars Pathfinder lander and Sojourner rover, to the equally rare, but less well–known, such as the Surveyor 3 camera returned from the Moon and Gordon Cooper's space boots. No other book can offer this breadth and depth of artifacts.
Customer Reviews:
Seldom Seen Artifacts from the Space Age.......2007-04-15
Another great book from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
The book has many color photos and some black and white of each artifact and a one page detail of each item , starting with Robert Goddard's Liquid Oxygen Flask and the Carrier and goes forward with Rockets and V-2, Satellites, and Guidence systems and many unusal items such as the Bell Rocket Belt No 2. Pressure Suits, Russian stamp of Gagarin flight, lunch box, sample of Soviet Green Cabbage Soup, a pack of Apollo and Soyuz cigarettes and it also has Sally Ride's flight suite Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Capsules,Apollo 16 Commander Checklist, Gemini V mission patch that was never used and the Soyuz spacecraft and many other in glorious color .And the book ends with SpaceShip One ( the first Private spaceship to enter outer space) This book will entertain you and your children and will teach you about the space race through the many different items on display, it the next best thing to being at the Air and Space Museum.
Books:
- Trail of Tears
- Twentieth-Century Russian and East European Painting: The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection
- Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives and Issues
- Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir
- What is WebSphere? Java, J2EE, Portal and Beyond! (Demystifying IBM's Middle Tier Technology, Vol. 1)
- WILD ICE
- Windows Vista(TM) Resource Kit
- 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
- A History of Greece (Works in Ancient Philosophy)
- A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900
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