The Mammoth Book of Space Exploration and Disaster

In the words of those who trod the void and those at mission

control, here are over 50 of the greatest true stories of suborbital,

orbital and deep-space exploration. From Apollo 8's

first view of a fractured, tortured landscape of craters on the

'dark side' of the Moon to the series of cliff-hanger crises

aboard space station Mir, they include moments of

extraordinary heroic achievement as well as episodes of terrible

human cost. Among the astronauts and cosmonauts featured are

John Glenn, Pavel Beyayev, Jim Lovell, Neil Armstrong, Buzz

Aldrin, Valery Korzun, Vasily Tsibliyev and Michael Foale.

Includes • First walk in space by Sergei Leonov and his

traumatic return to Earth • Apollo 13's problem - the classic,

nail-biting account of abandoning ship on the way to the

Moon • Docking with the frozen, empty Salyut 7 space station

that had drifted without power for eight months • Progress

crashes into Mir - the astronauts survive death by a hair's

breadth • Jerry Linenger's panic attack during a space walk,

'just out there dangling'.