Space Shuttle: The First 20 Years -- The Astronauts' Experiences in Their Own Words

An unprecedented look at the Space Shuttle experience, as told by the astronauts themselves. The editors of Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine wrote all of the people who have flown on the Space Shuttle since 1981 with a simple request: Tell us your best stories. The astronauts' fascinating and candid responses reveal the drama of the Shuttle experience, from launch to landing, like no other book has to date. More than 300 stunning pictures selected from deep in the NASA archives, most have never been published. Personal anecdotes drawn from written submissions or original interviews with 77 Shuttle astronauts. Historical section highlights in words and pictures the greatest accomplishments of the Shuttle's first two decades. Complete with brief descriptions of all 103 flights from April 1981 to April 2001, Space Shuttle includes a foreword written by astronaut Jim Lovell, who was portrayed by Tom Hanks in the film Apollo 13.

Air & Space / Smithsonian Magazine is published in association with the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C., the world's most visited museum. The magazine brings the excitement of aviation and space exploration to a non-technical readership, and is known for its vivid, true-to-life portraits of pilots and astronauts at work. James A. Lovell was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1962, and flew in space four times, on Gemini 7, Gemini 12, Apollo 8, and Apollo 13. As the command module pilot and navigator for Apollo 8, he made humanity's first voyage beyond Earth orbit.