Book 158

"Manned Spaceflight Log" discusses over 40 recent spaceflights from September 2006 through September 2012, a time of great change in human spaceflight history. Following on from "Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006," the authors continue the story until the end of September 2012, with new chapters detailing the development and...Read more

This book provides unique access to the story of how scientists were accepted into the American Space Programme, and reveals how, after four difficult decades, the role of the heroic test pilot astronaut has been replaced by men and women who are science orientated space explorers.


This flagship work charts a complete chronological log of orbital manned spaceflight. Included are the X-15 "astroflights" of the 1960s, and the two 1961 Mercury and Redstone missions which were non-orbital. There is an image depicting each manned spaceflight, and data boxes containing brief biographies of all the space...

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How could the newly authorized space shuttle help in the U.S. quest to build a large research station in Earth orbit? As a means of transporting goods, the shuttle could help supply the parts to the station. But how would the two entitles be physically linked?
Docking technologies had...Read more

Resulting from the authors’ deep research into these two pre-Shuttle astronaut groups, many intriguing and untold stories behind the selection process are revealed in the book. The often extraordinary backgrounds and personal ambitions of these skilled pilots, chosen to continue NASA’s exploration and knowledge of the space frontier, are...

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Gemini Flies!

by David J Shayler

Published 6 April 2018

In May 1961, President John F. Kennedy committed the United States to landing a man on the moon before the end of the decade. With just a handful of years to pull it off, NASA authorized the Project Gemini space program, which gathered vital knowledge needed to achieve the...

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The creation and utilization of the International Space Station (ISS) is a milestone in space exploration. But without the Space Shuttle, it would have remained an impossible dream. Assembling and Supplying the ISS is the story of how, between 1998 and 2011, the Shuttle became the platform which enabled...Read more

Unofficially they called themselves the TFNG, or the Thirty-Five New Guys. Officially, they were NASA’s Group 8 astronauts, selected in January 1978 to train for orbital missions aboard the Space Shuttle. Prior to this time only pilots or scientists trained as pilots had been assigned to fly on America’s...

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The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team

by Colin Burgess and Rex Hall

Published 23 December 2008

The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team will relate who these men were and offer far more extensive background stories, in addition to those of the more familiar names of early Soviet space explorers from that group. Many previously-unpublished photographs of these “missing” candidates will also be included for the first...

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Moon Bound

by Colin Burgess

Published 9 March 2013
Often lost in the shadow of the first group of astronauts for the Mercury missions, the second and third groups included the leading figures for NASA's activities for the following two decades. "Moon Bound" complements the author's recently published work, "Selecting the Mercury Seven" (2011), extending the story of...Read more

Faith 7

by Colin Burgess

Published 27 July 2016

This book celebrates the final spaceflight in the Mercury series, flown by NASA astronaut Gordon Cooper, who led an adventurous life in the cockpit of airplanes and spacecraft alike, and on his Mercury mission he became the last American ever to rocket into space alone. He flew in the Mercury...

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Aurora 7

by Colin Burgess

Published 15 September 2015

TO A NATION enthralled by the heroic exploits of the Mercury astronauts, the launch of Lt. Cmdr. Scott Carpenter on NASA’s second orbital space flight was a renewed cause for pride, jubilation and celebration. Within hours, that excitement had given way to stunned disbelief and anxiety as shaken broadcasters...

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Freedom 7

by Colin Burgess

Published 9 October 2013

Inevitably, there are times in a nation's history when its hopes, fears and confidence in its own destiny appear to hinge on the fate of a single person. One of these pivotal moments occurred on the early morning of May 5, 1961, when a 37-year-old test pilot squeezed himself...

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Liberty Bell 7

by Colin Burgess

Published 18 March 2014
NASA's Mercury astronauts were seven highly skilled professional test pilots. Each of them seemed to possess the strength of character and commitment necessary to overcome apparently insurmountable obstacles as the United States entered into a Cold War space race with the Soviet Union. This was never more evident than...Read more

Animals in Space

by Colin Burgess and Chris Dubbs

Published 1 January 2007

This book is as a detailed, but highly readable and balanced account of the history of animal space flights carried out by all nations, but principally the United States and the Soviet Union. It explores the ways in which animal high-altitude and space flight research impacted on space flight...

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Interkosmos

by Colin Burgess and Bert Vis

Published 28 November 2015

This book focuses on the Interkosmos program, which was formed in 1967, marking a fundamentally new era of cooperation by socialist countries, led by the Soviet Union, in the study and exploration of space. The chapters shed light on the space program that was at that time a prime outlet for the Soviet Union's...

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Sigma 7

by Colin Burgess

Published 9 June 2016

Colin Burgess offers a comprehensive yet personal look at the 1962 orbital mission of Wally Schirra aboard the spacecraft Sigma 7, the first book about this popular pioneering astronaut which explores his entire life and accomplishments. This continues the Pioneers in Early Spaceflight series, the volumes of which form an excellent...

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Soyuz

by Rex Hall and David Shayler

Published 7 May 2003
In Soyuz: A Universal Spacecraft, authors Rex Hall and Dave Shayler review
the development and operations of the Soyuz family of spacecraft. This
includes the lesser-known military and unmanned versions of this reliable
spacecraft.
While most works on Soviet/Russian space operations focus on space station...Read more

Friendship 7

by Colin Burgess

Published 1 January 2015

In this spellbinding account of an historic but troubled orbital mission, noted space historian Colin Burgess takes us back to an electrifying time in American history, when intrepid pioneers were launched atop notoriously unreliable rockets at the very dawn of human space exploration.

A nation proudly and collectively came to...

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