The Pre-Astronauts: Manned Ballooning on the Threshold of Space - Hardcover

Ryan, Craig

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1557507325 ISBN 13: 9781557507327

Publisher: Naval Inst Pr, 1995

Synopsis

Back in the 1950s and early 1960s, before liquid-fuel rockets had launched us full-sail onto what John Kennedy would call the "new ocean," a small fraternity of daring, brilliant men made the first exploratory trips into the upper stratosphere to the edge of outer space in tiny capsules suspended beneath plastic balloons. They saw things no one had ever seen, and they experienced conditions no one was sure they could survive. This book tells the story of these brave and tenacious men as they labored on the cusp of a new age.
The author captures the drama of their spectacular achievements and those of many of the other space pioneers who made America's stratospheric balloon programs possible. Their now largely forgotten programs supplied many systems and processes adopted by NASA. Unfortunately, some of the valuable lessons they brought back from the edge of space were ignored - in at least one case, with disastrous consequences. Craig Ryan's argument is compelling for the inclusion of these men's achievements in the broad history of space exploration and astronautics. In their day, before Gagarin and Glenn and American flags on the Sea of Tranquillity, these pre-astronauts were the space program.

About this title

About the Author:

Craig Ryan is a pilot, balloonist, skydiver, and prize-winning writer who lives in Portland, Oregon. He is also the author of Beautiful New Mexico and Beautiful New York.

From Booklist:

Here is the Naval Institute Press at its best, offering a superb, thorough history of a subject most other publishers would ignore. Ryan's book is a complete accounting of the U.S. efforts at manned stratospheric ballooning between World War II and the first manned spaceflights of Project Mercury--missions that included not only scientific and would-be record-setting flights, but also high-altitude parachute jumps and airborne telescopic surveys. Ryan also provides capsule histories of modern manned ballooning and skydiving and vivid portraits of men and women who, on shoestring budgets, risked and sometimes lost their lives while gathering much of the research essential to eventually achieving manned spaceflight. In all, Ryan gives aviation and space buffs an absolute feast of information. Roland Green

About this edition

• Publisher: Naval Inst Pr
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 1557507325
• ISBN 13: 9781557507327
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 344