Lori Garver has a new book out titled “Escaping Gravity: My Quest to Transform NASA and Launch a New Space Age” which explains much of how space exploration and utilization is being done in the third decade of the 21st century. But how did we get here? She explains. She was there.

I just finished reading Astronaut Ron Garan’s second book “Floating in Darkness: A Journey Of Evolution”. Contrary to the word “darkness” in the title, this book brings so much to light. I have gotten to know quite a few astronauts over the years – most of them just professionally. I have come to know a dozen or so much better and a few even more so. Every one of them has a different story as to how they came to be an astronaut. To some it was a calling. Others saw it as a logical career move. Some of them got in easily on their first try while others waited a decade or more. Some followed a straight path. Others took the long way around. I am not sure that I have ever met an astronaut who disliked their trips into space. I am sure there are a few. Most were clearly affected by the experience – some profoundly so.

To most people outside of NASA, a space mission that is making the news often appears out of nowhere. Sometimes there may be a little news when it is launched and maybe some tidbits along the way.

When I was growing up in the 1960s they’d show those old sci fi films from the 1950s on TV as an example of what the post-Apollo future would be like. People would climb into silvery rockets with fins and then they’d blast off – and land somewhere – in the same rocket.

Book Review: “Alien Oceans: The Search For Life In The Depths Of Space” by Kevin Hand “We live on an ocean world with 71% its surface covered by a water. For all of history humans had an intrinsic bias that all inhabited worlds would have large oceans – since we do. Indeed, the large flat plains of our Moon still bear names of imaginary seas based on that bias and […]

Book Review: “The Sirens of Mars: Searching For Life On Another World” by Sarah Stewart Johnson “We humans just landed yet another rover on Mars. As has been the case for decades, each mission to Mars builds upon the successes and failures of those that preceded it. And each mission seeks to ask more profound questions that its predecessors. The Perseverance rover is now unpacking itself and preparing to explore […]

I grew up in the late 1950s, the 1960s, and the early 1970s – alongside NASA and the world’s space programs. As such, my generation mostly had to make things up as we went in terms of what a space career was and how to pursue one. Flash forward a third of a century and Kellie Gerardi’s generation arrives.

Do you want to fly into space? Do you know someone who does? If so then this book is worth reading. “See You In Orbit? Our Dream of Spaceflight” by Alan Ladwig presents a comprehensive look by a space insider into the history of what space travel means to people. It details how individuals, space agencies, and companies have sought to give more people a chance to visit space. In […]

Half a century ago we went to the Moon. We went from no human spaceflight capability to the ability to land people on another world in 8 years. “Eight Years To The Moon” by Nancy Atkinson chronicles the behind the scenes efforts required to accomplish this improbable task.

Review: “The Sky Below: A True Story of Summits, Space, and Speed” by Scott Parazynski with Susy Flory

Book Review: The Orbital Perspective, SpaceRef “Ron Garan used to be an astronaut. Now he helps people in remote African communities obtain fresh drinking water. Yet he still has his head back amongst the stars. How he came to this point is the subject of his book “The Orbital Perspective”. While many people who have spent time in space have come back with altered perceptions and equipped with a new […]

Keith’ Cowing’s note: I have been reading books about space since, well, since I learned how to read. Indeed, this is how I learned to really read a book – since the books I had to read in school were lame.

Book Review: “Crater” By Homer Hickam “Crater” by Homer Hickam, is aimed at younger readers and manages to deliver quite a well-paced adventure. The book focuses on the adventures of Crater Trueblood a 16 year old blue collar kid who lives on the Moon complete with a mysterious past and a penchant for invention. He also has a knack of stumbling into one mini-adventure after another as he makes his […]

Book Review: Fifty Years on the Space Frontier: Halo Orbits, Comets, Asteroids, and More “Most people have never heard of Robert Farquhar outside of NASA – and that is a shame. The cover of this book says it all. Look at this exquisite orbit Farquhar created to take an old spacecraft so as to repurpose it and throw it at not one but two comets. Sheer artistry.”

Wings In Orbit: An Inside Look at the Shuttle, Aviation Week “Published by the Johnson Space Center and the Government Printing Office, Wings In Orbit is scheduled for an April 8 release through major book stores, including Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, as well as at http://www.shopNASA.com.” Keith’s 26 April note: This book is finally online. No one at PAO bothered to tell me despite repeated email inquiries and a […]

Mary Roach’s Packing for Mars: the Curious Science of Life in the Void will give you a whole new view of an astronaut’s life Frank Sietzen, Jr.: For most of us spacers human spaceflight is nothing to, well, joke about. After all, riding rockets into the cosmos is serious business, and there’s nothing that NASA or we do better than take ourselves seriously – perhaps too seriously. In the last […]

“I have been reading books about space since, well, since I learned how to read. Indeed this is how I learned to really read a book – since the books I had to read in school were lame. Nearly half a century later, I have read an unknown number of books that chronicle the life stories of those who have come to be involved with the exploration of space. Every […]

Editor’s note: What mystifies me is why a book on “sex” would cause JPL to “establish new procedures” and yet other book signings and “use of JPL facilities for non-JPL-related events” did not trigger such an internal review. In the mean time this memo still doesn’t explain why the “Ethics Officer” at JPL felt that it was in her power to take this book out of the JPL store.I just […]

I don’t’ have much time to review books these days. I feel honor bound to the authors who took the time to write their book to actually read it cover to cover – and observe the book as well as read it. After some arm-twisting from author and former NASA employee Homer Hickam, a review copy of this book found its way to my post office box.