Define Books To Dragonfly: NASA and the Crisis Aboard Mir
| Original Title: | Dragonfly: NASA and the Crisis Aboard Mir |
| ISBN: | 1841150878 (ISBN13: 9781841150871) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Bryan Burrough
Hardcover | Pages: 418 pages Rating: 4 | 577 Users | 42 Reviews
Rendition Conducive To Books Dragonfly: NASA and the Crisis Aboard Mir
On 2/12/97, two Russian cosmonauts joined an American astronaut on board the only permanent manned space outpost, the 11-year-old Mir. It was to be a routine mission, the 4th of seven trips to Mir that NASA astronauts would take as dress rehearsals for the two countries' partnership in a new Intern'l Space Station they were building back on Earth. But there'd been bad omens: a Moscow psychic who predicted a mysterious disaster; a Russian doctor who warned that the crew was psychologically incompatible. Within two weeks the omens were borne out, as the three were suddenly forced to fight the worst fire in space history. This was only the beginning of what became the most dangerous mission in the 36-year history of manned space travel--a 6-month misadventure that would climax in the most harrowing accident faced in space since Apollo 13. In Dragonfly, bestselling author Burrough tells the story of how a joint Russian-American crew narrowly survived almost every trauma imaginable: fire, power blackouts, chemical leaks, docking failures, nail-biting spacewalks & constant mechanical breakdowns, all climaxing in a dramatic midspace collision that left all on board scrambling for their lives.Based on hundreds of hours of interviews with the cosmonauts, astronauts, ground controllers, psychologists & scientists involved, Dragonfly is the saga of a mission as fraught with political & bureaucratic intrigues as any DC potboiler. Using never-before-released internal NASA memoranda, flight logs & debriefings, Burrough portrays a US space program in which many astronauts refuse to raise safety concerns for fear they'll be frozen out of future missions. It offers an unprecedented look inside the rattletrap Russian space program, where the desperate thirst for hard currency leads to safety shortcuts as exhausted, puppetlike cosmonauts endure inhuman pressures from their unfeeling, all-powerful masters on the ground.
In Dragonfly, the American astronauts who journeyed to Mir speak out about the failings of the program, from the rigors of training at Russia's Star City military base to the slapdash experiments they were required to perform. Yet thru it all the men & women of the two space programs persevered, forging friendships that will serve them well as the two countries prepare for the 1st launches of the Intern'l Space Station in late 1998. Theirs is a story of a triumph over adversity, destined to be one of the most enduring & widely celebrated adventure stories of our time.
Identify Of Books Dragonfly: NASA and the Crisis Aboard Mir
| Title | : | Dragonfly: NASA and the Crisis Aboard Mir |
| Author | : | Bryan Burrough |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 418 pages |
| Published | : | January 7th 1999 (first published January 16th 1997) |
| Categories | : | Space. Nonfiction. History. Science. Astronomy. Politics. Biography |
Rating Of Books Dragonfly: NASA and the Crisis Aboard Mir
Ratings: 4 From 577 Users | 42 ReviewsPiece Of Books Dragonfly: NASA and the Crisis Aboard Mir
I spent a week, mesmerized, reading this book. I quoted from it to my family and colleagues. Indeed, at work, when I protested against a sloppy piece of work, I was heard to say : "This is even worse than NASA in 1997". I came back to it night after night, even sneaking a couple of pages during my lunch break, with the fascination of someone watching a trainwreck in motion.Why ? Well, I had a vague idea that at some point in the late 90s, there were some American astronauts spending some time onBurrough's book is a very workable (and rare) overview of the Shuttle-Mir program that allowed the Americans and Russians start exploring how they can work together in order to make the ISS a reality. The nexus of this project was Mir, an aging Soviet-era space station. This book explores daily live aboard the station, frustrations of Americans training at Star City, the cash-strapped Russian space program, and the personalities of the astronauts and support staff who struggled to make this all
Bryan Burrough is one of the coauthors of Barbarians at the Gate, the story of RJR Nabisco, and has done an excellent job chronicling the joint Phase I space collaboration program between the Russians and the Americans on board Mir, the aging Russian space station. This was the first time that the two nations were collaborating on the something as big as their space programs and they brought in a lot of baggage from the cold war and from their respective cultures and attitudes.The Phase-I
Although kind of long and a stretched out series of events, Dragonfly made you feel like you are an astronaut aboard Mir. The book walks you through the regular day of an astronaut aboard Mir, and at two points, described major incidents that put the station in peril. In all, a great novel to show the true lives of the astronauts aboard Mir.
Absolutely riveting tale of the dysfunctional joint NASA-Russia Mir Space station program of the late 90's.
I felt like I had gone to see some galloping adventure flick after I finished this book. I learned a lot about the Russian space program, and the "Master-Slave" mentality that pervades it. It was fascinating to read about the American astronauts, and how they fit in (or didn't) during their long stays on Mir - how the adaptable ones got by and forged a strong bond with their cosmonaut counterparts, and how the rigid ones "failed to thrive". The explosion on Mir is so well-described that I felt I
A great book filled with a lot of information. I learned a lot about the Russian and American space programs and their culture.
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