Product Description

Praxis Log of Manned Spaceflight 1961-2006 will open with a section entitled: Quest for Space, which will provide an explanation of the methods employed to get in and out of orbit and brief overviews of the different international space programmes. It will be a complete chronological log of all attempted orbital manned spaceflights, including the X-15 "astroflights" of the 1960s that only achieved an altitude of c. 50 miles and the two 1961 Mercury and Redstone missions which were non-orbital. There will be an image depicting each manned spaceflight, and data boxes containing brief biographies of all the space travellers and basic flight data. The main text will be a narrative of each mission, its highlights and accomplishments, including those strange facts and humorous stories that are connected to every mission. By targeting publication in September 2006, the return to flight of the Shuttle, two more Soyuz TMA launches and, quite possibly, a second Chinese manned mission. The resulting book will be a handy reference to all manned spaceflights, the names astronauts and cosmonauts who flew on each mission, and their roles and accomplishments. Recent announcements of a return to the Moon and eventual manned flights to Mars, as new hardware and procedures are developed to support these long-range programs, emphasizes the case for future updates of this book.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #147151 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 836 pages

About the Author
Tim Furniss is a well known author of 35 popular space science books including the bestselling Jane’s Manned Spaceflight Log, published in 1983 and updated in 1987, which sold 16,000 plus copies, but is now out of print. Dave Shayler has authored and co-authored 7 successful Space Science Springer-Praxis books and has a further 3 under contract for publication in 2004. We therefore have the ideal team of authors for this flagship book.

Customer Reviews

Excellent data log on manned space missions
Excellent chronological logbook of orbital manned spaceflight. It covers the first manned Vostok-1 (Yuri Gagarin - 1961) to Soyuz TMA-09 (Int Space Station expedition 14 - 2006). The authors also included a photo depicting each crew or astronaut/cosmonaut for the single man/woman and X-15 space flights. There's a lot of information for each mission such as; Launch and landing site, duration, callsign, scientific objectives, etc... For the STS missions, info is included on SRB set and orbiter SSME.
Finally a worthy successor to the 1986 log by Tim Furniss but I would have preferred a Hardcover edition for a book one regularly consults. Anyway a must have for spaceflight enthusiasts.
Philip CORNEILLE
Belgium - Croatia

A must have
An amazing publication: covers Vostok-1 (Gagarin) to Soyuz TMA-9. Tons of info for each flight: International designation; launched; Launch site; Landed; Landing site; Launch vehicle (for the shuttle you have the tank number, the SRB set and the SSME engines); Duration; Callsign; Objective; Flight Crew; Flight Log and finally Milestones. Also three chapters cover respectively: Reaching the heavens (access/method; Space flight methods/launch systems); The Quest for Space; The orbital programmes (Vostok, Mercury, Apollo, Shuttle, Salyut, Shenzhou etc..).
An outstand reference works for anybody who is interested in the history of spaceflight!
A must have on one's bookshelf.

A comprehensive reference
This is not a book you are likely to sit down and read cover to cover, but it is a detailed and comprehensive reference to every manned spaceflight. There are plenty of photos, (in place on the page for each flight, not bound into a separate chunk), but unlike the cover photos they concentrate mainly on the crew - fair enough for a book on the 'manned' part of manned space flight.