The race to space between the United States and the Soviet Union captured the popular imagination. On April 12, 1961, the USSR launched cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on a one-orbit flight, making him the first human in space. Three weeks later, American astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. flew 116 miles above Earth before splashing down in the Bahamas. Over the next twenty years astronauts emerged as national heroes.
This book tells the story of the people and events of Projects Mercury and Gemini with hundreds of unpublished and rare photographs-both colour and black-and-white. Unlike other publications, which illustrate the space race with well-known and easily accessible images, this history draws from the authors' private library of over one hundred thousand (and growing) high-quality photos of the early U.S. manned-space program.
Collected over a lifetime from public and private sources-including NASA archives, fellow collectors, retired NASA and news photographers, and auction houses-the images document American space missions of the Cold War era more comprehensively than ever before. Devoting a chapter to each flight, the authors also include detailed descriptions, providing new insight into one of America's greatest triumphs.
The race to space between the United States and the Soviet Union captured the popular imagination. On April 12, 1961, the USSR launched cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on a one-orbit flight, making him the first human in space. Three weeks later, American astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. flew 116 miles above Earth before splashing down in the Bahamas. Over the next twenty years astronauts emerged as national heroes.
This book tells the story of the people and events of Projects Mercury and Gemini with hundreds of unpublished and rare photographs-both colour and black-and-white. Unlike other publications, which illustrate the space race with well-known and easily accessible images, this history draws from the authors' private library of over one hundred thousand (and growing) high-quality photos of the early U.S. manned-space program.
Collected over a lifetime from public and private sources-including NASA archives, fellow collectors, retired NASA and news photographers, and auction houses-the images document American space missions of the Cold War era more comprehensively than ever before. Devoting a chapter to each flight, the authors also include detailed descriptions, providing new insight into one of America's greatest triumphs.
John Bisney is a former correspondent who covered
the space program for more than thirty years for CNN, the Discovery
Channel, and SiriusXM Radio, among other news outlets. He lives in
St. Petersburg, Florida, USA.
J. L. Pickering lives in Bloomington, Illinois,
USA. He is a space-flight historian who has been archiving rare
space images and historic artefacts for some forty years.
"[Bisney and Pickering] have collected an impressive selection of
photographs. The book's massive assortment . . . does a wonderful
job of illustrating the culture and experience of the space
race."--mentalfloss.com
"An enjoyable book, offering a different look at familiar
missions."--The Space Review
"From a space enthusiast's perspective, Pickering's book feeds an
interest in the 'not-so-common' NASA image that everyone has seen
before."--The Pantagraph
"In resurrecting many obscure photos the authors have provided a
valuable, and highly desirable, compendium of outstanding pictures
from an age when each flight saw the release of perhaps fewer than
one-hundred stock shots."--Spaceflight
"The value of this collection is enhanced many times over by the
exhaustive research that has gone into providing informative and
accurate captions for each picture."--The Observatory
"The visual narrative employed by the authors reminds us not only
of the sublimity of astronaut photography, but also the thousands
of people who made spaceflight possible."--Quest
"Together, [Spaceshots and Snapshots of Projects Mercury and Gemini
and Moonshots and Snapshots of Project Apollo] are a treat for any
space buff and, for the true believers, a reminder that even
greater journeys may lie just ahead."--American Scientist
"A wonderful collection of rarely seen photographs that true space
buffs will enjoy. The captions are worth their weight in space-fact
gold." --Richard W. Orloff, coauthor of Apollo: The Definitive
Sourcebook
"If you think you've seen every cool photo from the pioneering days
of NASA, think again! J. L. Pickering and John Bisney have combed
the archives . . . to create an extraordinary visual record that
will delight and surprise even the most hard-core space
enthusiast."-- Andrew Chaikin, author of A Man on the Moon: The
Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts
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