Forever Young, livre ebook

He walked on the Moon. He flew six space missions in three different programs—more than any other human. He served with NASA for more than four decades. His peers called him the “astronaut’s astronaut.”

Enthusiasts of space exploration have long waited for John Young to tell the story of his two Gemini flights, his two Apollo missions, the first-ever Space Shuttle flight, and the first Spacelab mission. Forever Young delivers all that and more: Young’s personal journey from engineering graduate to fighter pilot, to test pilot, to astronaut, to high NASA official, to clear-headed predictor of the fate of Planet Earth.

Young, with the assistance of internationally distinguished aerospace historian James Hansen, recounts the great episodes of his amazing flying career in fascinating detail and with wry humor. He portrays astronauts as ordinary human beings and NASA as an institution with the same ups and downs as other major bureaucracies. He frankly discusses the risks of space travel, including what went wrong with the Challenger and Columbia shuttles.

Forever Young is one of the last memoirs produced by an early American astronaut. It is the first memoir written by a chief of the NASA astronaut corps. Young’s experiences and candor make this book indispensable to everyone interested in the U.S. space program.

Foreword

Prologue: “Go” or “No-Go”

Part 1. A Flying Career

Chapter 1. From Cartersville to Georgia Tech

Chapter 2. Gunnery Officer to Naval Aviator

Chapter 3. Fighter Pilot to Test Pilot

Chapter 4. Pax River

Part 2. Into Orbit

Chapter 5. The New Nine and Project Gemini

Chapter 6. Countdown

Chapter 7. Three Orbits

Chapter 8. Dual Rendezvous

Part 3. Lunar Journeys

Chapter 9. From a Fire to the Moon

Chapter 10. Call Sign Charlie Brown

Chapter 11. From Tranquility to a Lost Moon

Chapter 12. To the Descartes Highlands

Chapter 13. In the Briar Patch

Chapter 14. The End of Moon Landings

Part 4. The Shuttle Era

Chapter 15. Enterprise

Chapter 16. “The Boldest Test Flight in History”

Chapter 17. Advent of the “Operational” Shuttle

Chapter 18. A Steep Spiral Staircase

Chapter 19. The Challenger Disaster

Chapter 20. A Mountain of Memos

Chapter 21. “The Next Logical Step”

Chapter 22. On a Wing and a Prayer

Epilogue: When Worlds Collide

Abbreviations

Notes

Index