Pre-Astronauts by Craig Ryan
In the 1950s and early 1960s a small fraternity of daring, brilliant men made the first exploratory trips into the upper stratosphere, reaching the edge of outer space in tiny capsules suspended beneath plastic balloons. This book tells the story of these tenacious men as they laboured on the cusp of a new age, seeing things that no one had ever seen and experiencing conditions no one was sure they could survive.Mostly U.S. Air Force and Navy officers, among them doctors, physicists, meteorologists, engineers, astronomers, and test pilots, they struggled with meagre budgets, bureaucratic politics, and one another. It is a thrilling story of tremendous personal sacrifice and great risk for the promise of adventure and the opportunity to uncover a few precious aspects of the universe. Capt. Joseph Kittinger, for example, rode a balloon up to 103,000 feet in an open gondola and then stepped out and freefell to Earth, becoming the only person to break the sound barrier without a vehicle. Lt. Col. David Simons stayed aloft for a full day and night in a primitive pressurized capsule to become one of the first to see the curvature of the planet. In this work, Craig Ryan masterfully captures the drama of their spectacular achievements and those of many of the other space pioneers who made America's stratospheric balloon programs possible.
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No Surrender
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Reach for the Sky
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Alone on Guadalcanal
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The Bridge at Dong Ha
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Reminiscences
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Trapped at Pearl Harbor
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Silent Victory
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Torpedo Junction
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Tin Can Sailor
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The Big E
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Take Her Deep
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Around the World Submerged
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Admiral Arleigh (31-Knot) Burke
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Can Do!
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First to Fight
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One Hundred Days
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The Divine Wind
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Midway
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A Sense of Honor
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The Magnificent Mitscher
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Under Two Flags
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PT 105
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Mother Was a Gunner's Mate
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Command of the Seas
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Commander in Chief
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The Pacific War Remembered
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Subchaser
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"Franklin" Comes Home
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The Flight of Leroy Brown
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We Will Stand by You
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First Class
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Dog Company Six
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The Golden Thirteen
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A Special Valor
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The Return of Philo T. McGiffin
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Back from the Deep
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U-Boat Ace
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Yangtze Patrol
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Tragedy at Honda
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The Faustball Tunnel
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Battleship Sailor
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C.S.S. "Shenandoah"
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Secret Missions
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The Ship that Held the Line
An absolute feast of information"- Booklist;
"Comprehensive…"- Air and Space;
"Craig Ryan superbly narrates harrowing moments experienced by the balloonists."- The Houston Chronicle
"Comprehensive…"- Air and Space;
"Craig Ryan superbly narrates harrowing moments experienced by the balloonists."- The Houston Chronicle
Craig Ryan graduated from Reed College in 1977 with a BA in English literature. He spent two years in the Brown University Writer's Workshop, where he was awarded the Feldman Prize for Short Fiction. He received an MA in English literature and writing from Brown in 1982 and won the Transatlantic Review Award for New Fiction the following Year. He is also the author of two travel books and has published several articles in the computer and electronics trade press.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781591147480 |
| ISBN 10 | 1591147484 |
| Title | Pre-Astronauts |
| Author | Craig Ryan |
| Series | Bluejacket Bks |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Naval Institute Press |
| Year published | 2003-01-30 |
| Number of pages | 344 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |