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The Pre-Astronauts: Manned Ballooning on the Threshold of Space (Bluejacket Paperback Series) - Softcover

Ryan, Craig

 
9781591147480: The Pre-Astronauts: Manned Ballooning on the Threshold of Space (Bluejacket Paperback Series)
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ISBN 10: 1591147484 ISBN 13: 9781591147480
Publisher: Naval Institute Press, 2003
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In the 1950s and early 1960s a small fraternity of daring, brilliant men made the first exploratory trips into the upper stratosphere, reaching the edge of outer space in tiny capsules suspended beneath plastic balloons. This book tells the story of these tenacious men as they labored on the cusp of a new age, seeing things that no one had ever seen and experiencing conditions no one was sure they could survive.


Mostly U.S. Air Force and Navy officers, among them doctors, physicists, meteorologists, engineers, astronomers, and test pilots, they struggled with meager budgets, bureaucratic politics, and one another. It is a thrilling story of tremendous personal sacrifice and great risk for the promise of adventure and the opportunity to uncover a few precious aspects of the universe. Capt. Joseph Kittinger, for example, rode a balloon up to 103,000 feet in an open gondola and then stepped out and freefell to Earth, becoming the only person to break the sound barrier without a vehicle. Lt. Col. David Simons stayed aloft for a full day and night in a primitive pressurized capsule to become one of the first to see the curvature of the planet. In this work, Craig Ryan masterfully captures the drama of their spectacular achievements and those of many of the other space pioneers who made America's stratospheric balloon programs possible.

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About the Author:
Craig Ryan is a pilot, balloonist, skydiver, and prize-winning writer who lives in Portland, Oregon. He is also the author of Beautiful New Mexico and Beautiful New York.
From Booklist:
Here is the Naval Institute Press at its best, offering a superb, thorough history of a subject most other publishers would ignore. Ryan's book is a complete accounting of the U.S. efforts at manned stratospheric ballooning between World War II and the first manned spaceflights of Project Mercury--missions that included not only scientific and would-be record-setting flights, but also high-altitude parachute jumps and airborne telescopic surveys. Ryan also provides capsule histories of modern manned ballooning and skydiving and vivid portraits of men and women who, on shoestring budgets, risked and sometimes lost their lives while gathering much of the research essential to eventually achieving manned spaceflight. In all, Ryan gives aviation and space buffs an absolute feast of information. Roland Green

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  • PublisherNaval Institute Press
  • Publication date2003
  • ISBN 10 1591147484
  • ISBN 13 9781591147480
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages344
  • Rating

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