Rocketman: Astronaut Pete Conrad's Incredible Ride to the Moon and Beyond - Hardcover

Conrad, Nancy; Klausner, Howard A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0451215095 ISBN 13: 9780451215093

Publisher: NAL Hardcover, 2005

Synopsis

Describes the space cowboy's poverty-stricken youth, educational success, efforts to overcome dyslexia, work as an elite test pilot, remarkable accomplishments with the space program, and untimely death in a motorcycle accident.

About this title

About the Author

Nancy Conrad was married to Pete Conrad for the last ten years of his life. A writer, artists' representative, and interior designer, she co-founded Universal Space Networks (with her late husband), and the Community Emergency Healthcare Initiative, to prevent injuries and deaths occurring from medical error in emergency rooms.

Howard A. Klausner wrote the screenplay for Space Cowboys, starring Clint Eastwood and Tommy Lee Jones.

Reviews

Screenwriter Klausner (Space Cowboys), writing with astronaut Conrad's second wife, Nancy, brings a snappy, movie-dialogue feel to this biography of Charles "Pete" Conrad (1930–1999). Perhaps not as well remembered as some of his colleagues because his missions fell between the more famous ones, Conrad flew on Gemini 5, which set a record for the most days in space up to that point, on Gemini11, notable for rendezvousing and docking with a rocket on the first orbit, and commanded Apollo 12 on a glitch-free ride to the moon. A decade later, Conrad was called on to save the ill-fated Skylab, which had suffered crippling injuries on its journey into space. He showed that the best way to fix something was usually the simplest: a few good hard whacks with a hammer. Early in his career, Conrad was passed over for the Mercury program because he didn't have "the right stuff"—he got fed up with the intrusive medical exams and tossed his enema bag down on the commanding general's desk. But the public and Conrad's co-workers loved him for his hard-living, hard-working persona. Fans of the American space program will enjoy this fast read, which captures the bigger-than-life character of this gap-toothed, all-American space cowboy. Agent, Bill Gladstone.(May 3)
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The late astronaut Pete Conrad had a distinguished record and a wide streak of cowboy in him. This biography by his widow and screenwriter Klausner draws on their recorded interviews with Conrad, the last completed just before his accidental death, and does him as much justice as possible. The scion of a Main Line Philadelphia family ruined by the Depression, Conrad paid for flying lessons by working at airports and went to Princeton on a navy scholarship. Highly rated as a test pilot, he walked out of the original Mercury selection process because he disliked the tests and the doctors. He returned to fly two Gemini missions, command Apollo XII (the second moon landing), and command and repair, on the spot, Skylab during its first mission. His post-astronaut career included McDonnell Douglas, cable TV, round-the-world flight records, and serious work on a reusable space launcher before he died in a motorcycle accident. The book occasionally wanders from its biographical subject into social history, but space mavens will grab it and hold, regardless. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: NAL Hardcover
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0451215095
• ISBN 13: 9780451215093
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320