Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
The Astronaut Maker : How One Mysterious Engineer Ran Human Spaceflight for a Generation - Michael Cassutt

The Astronaut Maker

How One Mysterious Engineer Ran Human Spaceflight for a Generation

By: Michael Cassutt

Paperback | 2 June 2020

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $34.99

$33.99

or 4 interest-free payments of $8.50 with

 or 

Available for Backorder. We will order this from our supplier however there isn't a current ETA.

One of the most elusive and controversial figures in NASA's history, George W. S. Abbey was said to be secretive, despotic, a Space Age Machiavelli. Yet Abbey had more influence on human spaceflight than almost anyone in history. His story has never been told-until now.

The Astronaut Maker takes readers inside NASA to learn the real story of how Abbey rose to power, from young pilot and wannabe astronaut to engineer, bureaucrat, and finally director of the Johnson Space Center. During a thirty-seven-year career, mostly out of the spotlight, he oversaw the selection of every astronaut class from 1978 to 1987, deciding who got to fly and when. He was with the Apollo 1 astronauts the night before the fatal fire in January 1967. He was in mission control the night of the Apollo 13 accident and organised the recovery effort. Abbey also led NASA's recruitment of women and minorities as space shuttle astronauts and was responsible for hiring Sally Ride.

The Astronaut Maker is the ultimate insider's account of ambition and power politics at NASA.

The People of Space Exploration

Rocket Boys : A Memoir - Homer Hickam

$39.75

Apollo 13 - James Lovell

Paperback

$40.75

First Man : The Life of Neil A. Armstrong - James Hansen
Rocket Man : Von Braun: Nazi at NASA - Paula Astridge

RRP $24.95

$24.75

First Man : The Life of Neil A. Armstrong - James Hansen
Soviets in Space : The People of the USSR and the Race to the Moon - Colin Turbett
The Astronaut Wives Club - Lily Koppel
The Ordinary Spaceman : From Boyhood Dreams to Astronaut - Clayton C. Anderson