Table of Contents

List of IllustrationsForewordAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. First to Fly2. Lighting the Candle3. The Pursuit of Liberty4. Flight of the Eagle5. To Rise Above6. Heavenly Twins7. The Two Wallys8. A Change of Altitude9. A Seagull in Flight10. Stepping into the VoidReferencesIndex

Promotional Information

A people's history of the global space race in the 1960s, beginning with cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and astronaut Alan Shepard and ending with the close of the Mercury and Voskhod programs in 1965.

About the Author

Francis French is the director of education at the San Diego Air and Space Museum and the coauthor with Colin Burgess of In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965–1969 (Nebraska 2007). Colin Burgess is a former flight service director with Qantas Airlines and the author of many books on spaceflight, including Fallen Astronauts: Heroes Who Died Reaching for the Moon, available in a Bison Books edition. A NASA public affairs officer from 1958 to 1969, Paul Haney was known widely as NASA’s “voice of mission control.”

Reviews

"Eminently readable, well-crafted... The merits of this popular history rest in the elegant narrative and the authors' thoughtful awareness of the space explorer genre." Air & Space Smithsonian "Accessible to both newcomers to space history and well-read enthusiasts alike." Space Review "[Into That Silent Sea] dispenses with distracting technical jargon and nationalistic jingoism to deliver ten superbly composed, thoughtfully balanced chapters about the astronauts and cosmonauts who flew Mercury and Vostok/Voskhod missions... Avid readers will revel in the authors' masterful compilation of these straight-forward, detailed mini-biographies." Air Power History "Unforgettable days and some unforgettable characters were brought vividly back to me by this truly wonderful book. They were fun times; they were also incredibly difficult, hard-working, and agonizing times, watching dear friends launch into space with my heart in my mouth. This book offers a treasure trove of memories." Dee O'Hara, nurse to the astronauts "As well as vividly picturing the men, this book also accurately tells the story of the very first women to train for spaceflight in Russia---and women like me in America who hoped for the same opportunity to reach for the stars." Wally Funk, rocket pilot for Interorbital Systems Corporation "This frank, entertaining, no-holds-barred ride through the golden age of space flight takes us behind the official stories, into the real lives of the very first astronauts and cosmonauts." Wally Schirra: Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronaut