Description
Book SynopsisWinner of the Eugene Emme Astronautical Literature Prize from the American Astronautical Society For eight days in October 1984, seven men and women orbitied the Earth on Space Shuttle Mission 41-G. The mission has begun a year earlier; however, with the select of its crew. Before Lift-off is the extraordinary day-to-day story of these astronauts' training and flight-and is as close as most of us will ever come to flying on the space shuttle. New Yorker writer Henry Cooper obtained unprecedented permission from NASA to follow the 41-G crew from its formation through the completion of its mission. He was even given access to the heart of the training program: the crew's sessions in the shuttle mision simulators. More than a chronical of different phases in the astronauts' learning process, Before Lift-off tells the story of the bonding of these men and women. It would be Captain Robert Crippen's fourth space flight, his second command in six months, and Sally Ride's second shuttle voyage. For rookies Davida Leestra, Jon McBride, and Kathy Sullivan, and for two payload specialists, the experience would mark an initiation into the most elite groups-those people who have ventured into space.
Trade ReviewWritten in a journalistic style without scholarly apparatus, it is an excellent first person account of the 1984 mission of STS-41G -- Roger D. Launius Space Times 2006
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1. October 4 and 5, 1984
Chapter 2. November 1983 and Earlier
Chapter 3. Week of January 23-27, 1984
Chapter 4. Week of February 27-March 2
Chapter 5. Week of April 16-20
Chapter 6. Week of June 11-15
Chapter 7. Week of July 23-27
Chapter 8. Week of September 3-7
Chapter 9. Week of September 18-21
Chapter 10. Fortnight of September 20-October 4
Chapter 11. Week of October 5-13
Chapter 12. October 13 and Afterward
Epilogue
Index
