Research Catalog

The pre-astronauts : manned ballooning on the threshold of space

Title: The pre-astronauts : manned ballooning on the threshold of space / Craig Ryan.
Author: Ryan, Craig, 1953-
Publication: Annapolis, Maryland : Naval Institute Press, 1995.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	TL618 .R95 1995	Off-site

Details

Description

xiv, 327 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

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.

Subject

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 309-317) and index.

ISBN

1557507325
9781557507327

LCCN

94048540

OCLC

ocm31776557
31776557
SCSB-2066632

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library