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

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0451215095 ISBN 13: 9780451215093

Publisher: NAL Hardcover, 2005

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 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.

From Publishers Weekly:

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)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.