Who's Who in Space: The International Space Year Edition - Hardcover

Cassutt, Michael

9780028970929: Who's Who in Space: The International Space Year Edition

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0028970926 ISBN 13: 9780028970929

Publisher: Macmillan Library Reference, 1993

Provides informative entries for over 600 individuals who have contributed to space travel, including astronauts, cosmonauts, and scientists

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From Booklist:

With this comprehensive biographical dictionary, Cassutt succeeds in depicting the men and women from the U.S., the former Soviet Union, and other countries who participated in the space race as "fathers and mothers, people who had been high school and college students, who had worked as lathe operators or farmhands on their way to becoming scientists, engineers, and pilots."

Biographies are grouped in 11 sections by nationality and space program. Each opens with an essay describing the program, followed by the alphabetically arranged biographies. These include birth date (and death date, where applicable), a short description of the astronaut's or cosmonaut's life, and, in most cases, a black-and-white photograph. In addition, Who's Who in Space includes an insert of photographs of NASA mission patches and groups shots of pioneers of the American and Soviet space programs.

Appendixes include a list of manned spaceflights (showing the mission designation, launch data, crew, call sign, landing data, duration, and remarks); X-15 spaceflights; shuttle approach and landing tests; manned time-in-space log, 1961-92; world extravehicular-activity log, 1965-92; lists of U.S. and Soviet flight crews; and state-by-state teacher-in-space and journalist-in-space candidates. The detailed index of names also notes when one astronaut is mentioned in the biography of another or in the introductions. Within the body of the work are cross-references between programs; thus, Neil Armstrong, whose biography appears under "NASA Astronauts," has a listing under "X-15 Pilots" with a reference to the full-length biography.

More than 75 flights have been made since this book's first edition (published with the subtitle, The First 25 Years, G. K. Hall, 1987), and the price of the book has more than doubled. However, high school, public, and academic libraries serving clients interested in the people exploring the final frontier will find this $75 well spent. Astronauts and Cosmonauts: Biographical and Statistical Data [RBB Je 15 90] was published by the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology in 1989. It provides similar information, though recent flights are not included.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 10 Up-A revised and updated edition of a book published in 1987, this is the standard source of information about people who have gone into space, or trained to do so: over 600 astronauts, cosmonauts, X-15 and X-20 Dyna-Soar pilots, scientists, and payload specialists. Each man or woman receives a small black-and-white photo and a several-hundred to several-thousand word biographical entry; the information, current through August 1992, is compiled from (uncited) published or unpublished sources, and some of it, particularly from the Soviet space programs, has not been previously available. In pointing out certain less-than-glorious moments in the careers of his subjects, Cassutt reminds readers that space travel is a human endeavor, not the achievement of (as he puts it) "soulless drones." Entries are arranged alphabetically under 1 of 11 rubrics ("Civilian Shuttle Payload Specialists," etc.); the last, "International Space Travellers," is further subdivided by country. Flights, crews, and logs, as well as the names of Teacher-in-Space and Journalist-in-Space candidates, are charted in a series of appendixes. Though more appropriate for large adult reference collections, this deep resource will be a useful addition to any well-funded high school library.
John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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