Description
Book SynopsisNear the end of the Apollo 15 mission, David Scott and fellow moonwalker James Irwin placed on the lunar soil a small tin figurine called “The Fallen Astronaut”. By telling the stories of the sixteen astronauts and cosmonauts who died in the quest to reach the moon between 1962 and 1972, this book conveys the human cost of the space race.
Trade Review“Emotionally moving, factually detailed portraits. . . .
Fallen Astronauts should be on every space enthusiast’s reading list.”—Rick W. Sturdevant,
Air Power History “A fascinating, often sad, but uplifting account. . . . Though there are many space explorers no longer with us, their achievements should not be forgotten. This book goes a long way to preserve the memory of sixteen of them.”—Dave Shayler,
Spaceflight“Well written and will be enjoyed by enthusiasts of the history of spaceflight.”—
Choice“This wonderful book, which brought back many fond and sometimes painful memories of a few who sadly never realized their dreams, is a long-overdue tribute to fallen comrades from a truly amazing era in American history.”—Walter M. Schirra Jr., Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronaut
“In this fine history, Burgess and Doolan have made an important contribution to the history of space flight.”—Scott Carpenter, Mercury astronaut
“
Fallen Astronauts is a long-overdue tribute to a group of men who paid the ultimate price for their tragically unfulfilled dreams of spaceflight.”—Michael Cassutt, author of
Who’s Who in Space and coauthor of
We Have Capture “To open the way to the stars is the most important mission of mankind. All spacemen are heroes to me.”—Paul Van Hoeydonck, artist, sculptor, and creator of the
The Fallen Astronayt statuette
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. A Routine Training Flight
Capt. Theodore Cordy Freeman, USAF
2. Gemini Twins
Elliot McKay See Jr.
Capt. Charles Arthur Bassett II, USAF
3. Countdown to Disaster
Lt. Col. Virgil Ivan Grissom, USAF
Lt. Col. Edward Higgins White II, USAF
Lt. Cdr. Roger Bruce Chaffee, USN
4. By the Light of a Soviet Moon
Russia’s Cosmonauts
5. A Lonely Stretch of Road
Maj. Edward Galen Givens Jr., USAF
6. “Mayday, Mayday!”
Maj. Clifton Curtis Williams Jr., USMC
Epilogue
Sources
Index
