Overview
- Adds to the 'Pioneers in Early Spaceflight' series of books documenting the history of the Mercury manned missions
- Provides the background of John Glenn's selection as a Mercury astronaut and his designation as the first to fly an orbital mission with NASA
- Features details on the development of the Mercury-Atlas program and its first test flight with chimpanzee Enos, augmented by first-hand interviews with those involved
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
Part of the book series: Springer Praxis Books (PRAXIS)
Part of the book sub series: Space Exploration (SPACEE)
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Table of contents (9 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
In this spellbinding account of an historic but troubled orbital mission, noted space historian Colin Burgess takes us back to an electrifying time in American history, when intrepid pioneers were launched atop notoriously unreliable rockets at the very dawn of human space exploration.
A nation proudly and collectively came to a standstill on the day this mission flew; a day that will be forever enshrined in American spaceflight history. On the morning of February 20, 1962, following months of frustrating delays, a Marine Corps war hero and test pilot named John Glenn finally blazed a path into orbit aboard a compact capsule named Friendship 7.
The book’s tension-filled narrative faithfully unfolds through contemporary reports and the personal recollections of astronaut John Glenn, along with those closest to the Friendship 7 story, revealing previously unknown facts behind one of America’s most ambitious and memorable pioneering space missions.
Friendship 7.
The book’s tension-filled narrative faithfully unfolds through contemporary reports and the personal recollections of astronaut John Glenn, along with those closest to the Friendship 7 story, revealing previously unknown facts behind one of America’s most ambitious and memorable pioneering space missions.
Friendship 7 story, revealing previously unknown facts behind one of America’s most ambitious and memorable pioneering space missions.Reviews
“This book is about his first flight during the Mercury program aboard the spaceship Friendship 7. …. covers the beginning of the spaceflight era in the late 1950s to Glenn’s flight in 1962. … The book also includes many fascinating photographs about the NASA programs and Glenn's flight. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All space exploration library collections.” (J. Z. Kiss, Choice, Vol. 53 (9), May, 2016)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Australian author Colin Burgess grew up in Sydney’s southern suburbs. Initially working in the wages department of a major Sydney afternoon newspaper (where he first picked up his writing bug) and as a sales representative for a precious metals company, he subsequently joined Qantas Airways as a passenger handling agent in 1970 and two years later transferred to the airline’s cabin crew. He would retire from Qantas as an onboard Customer Service Manager in 2002, after 32 years’ service. During those flying years several of his books on the Australian prisoner-of-war experience and the first of his biographical books on space explorers such as Australian payload specialist Dr. Paul Scully-Power and Space Shuttle Challenger teacher Christa McAuliffe were published. He has also written extensively on spaceflight subjects for astronomy and space-related magazines in Australia, the United Kingdom and the Unites States.
In 2003 the University of Nebraska Press appointed him series editor for the ongoing Outward Odyssey series of 12 books detailing the entire social history of space exploration and he was involved in co-writing three of these volumes. His first Springer-Praxis book, NASA’s Scientist-Astronauts, co-authored with British space historian David J. Shayler, was released in 2007. Friendship 7 will be his eighth title with Springer-Praxis, for whom he is currently researching further books. He regularly attends astronaut functions in the United States and is well known to many of the pioneering space explorers, allowing him to conduct personal interviews for these books.
Colin and his wife Patricia still live just south of Sydney. They have two grown sons, two grandsons and a granddaughter.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Friendship 7
Book Subtitle: The Epic Orbital Flight of John H. Glenn, Jr.
Authors: Colin Burgess
Series Title: Springer Praxis Books
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15654-5
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-15653-8Published: 20 April 2015
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-15654-5Published: 07 April 2015
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXI, 275
Number of Illustrations: 149 b/w illustrations, 37 illustrations in colour
Topics: Popular Science in Astronomy, Aerospace Technology and Astronautics, Space Sciences (including Extraterrestrial Physics, Space Exploration and Astronautics), History of Science