Download or read book Astronaut Dad written by David Hopkins and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2012-02-20 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over fifty years ago -- October 4, 1957 -- humanity entered a new age with the launch of the first artificial satellite, Soviet Union's Sputnik I. Return to those early days, when John F. Kennedy challenged a nation to place a man on the moon before the end of the decade, when the nation sought out test pilots with "the right stuff" to ride rockets into the night. ASTRONAUT DAD follows three NASA families from Houston, Texas during the boom years of the space race.

Download or read book My Dad the Unsung Astronaut written by J.E. Hancock and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2014-01-27 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This story takes place mainly in the houses where Earl Hancock lived in Hawthorne Park and Fullerton, when Earl lived with his wife, Marie, and his son and while he worked at NASA, then went to the moon in the 1970s. This is the drama between the forces of good and evil trying to raise a child during the space age, to have a little boy grow up healthy and happy. It will show the struggle between common sense and cruelty and how Earl Hancock was a real feeling and thinking human being who dearly cared for his son and his family, and in spite of his self-medicating with alcohol, he did everything in his power to have a happy family. With his wife, Marie, trying to destroy him, Earl realized that he was going to have to fight to make his dreams, and that of his son, come true. His son would realize all too soon that he would have to fight for a long time also.

Download or read book Astronaut Dad written by David Hopkins and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2011-09-15 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over fifty years ago -- October 4, 1957 -- humanity entered a new age with the launch of the first artificial satellite, Soviet Union's Sputnik I. Return to those early days, when John F. Kennedy challenged a nation to place a man on the moon before the end of the decade, when the nation sought out test pilots with "the right stuff" to ride rockets into the night. ASTRONAUT DAD follows three NASA families from Houston, Texas during the boom years of the space race.

Download or read book The Father Son and Holy Shuttle written by Patrick Mullane and published by . This book was released on 2020-04-18 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While many children grow up with the dream of becoming an astronaut, Patrick Mullane grew up the child of one. In The Father, Son, and Holy Shuttle: Growing Up an Astronaut's Kid in the Glorious 80s, Mullane shares his unique and outrageous coming-of-age tale. It is a tale about his father's unusual astronaut profession, a secret long-held by his mother, and his often-hilarious efforts to be a person of consequence. In 1978, when Mullane was ten years old, his father, Mike Mullane, was chosen in the very first group of space shuttle astronauts - a group that included Sally Ride and four members of the Challenger crew who were lost when it tore apart in 1986. In The Father, Son, and Holy Shuttle, he tells of how his father's profession defined him, first as a young boy hopping from military base to military base with his parents and two sisters, and then as a pimple-faced, unknown nerd in a large Houston high school where he often felt like one of the pathetic underdog characters in a John Hughes film of the day. The Father, Son, and Holy Shuttle is about Mullane trying to be a hero in his own world as he believed his father and his pop culture idols - Indiana Jones, Han Solo, and Luke Skywalker - were in theirs. While unequivocally a memoir, Mullane weaves into his story a non-technical history of the early space shuttle program as seen through the eyes of somebody who witnessed that history in an intimate way. From the opening scene describing his dad's first launch attempt when a failure led Mullane to believe he had witnessed his father's death three miles distant, to the description of the day Challenger exploded and three of his high school classmates lost a parent, to stories of Sally Ride having a beer after work in his backyard, Mullane shares with readers a perspective that has yet to be explored in any book and does so with an infusion of 80s pop culture and colorful real-life characters that will leave readers nostalgic for a decade that shaped the millions. But more than anything, The Father, Son, and Holy Shuttle is a story of the love between a father and son - a love shaped by a mutual wonder at the magnificence of the world, the majesty of the universe, and the beauty of flight.

Download or read book The Long Lost Secret Diary Of The World s Worst Astronaut written by Tim Collins and published by The Salariya Book Company. This book was released on 2021-02-02 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These hilarious fictional diaries put us inside the heads of hapless figures from history in frazzling situations. In this diary, we follow the experiences of a girl who finds herself in the running to be selected for a milestone manned voyage to Mars. Will she get through the rigorous training in one piece? Will she survive the journey to the red planet? And what historic words should she say when she first steps foot on its soil? ‘Get Real’ fact boxes feature throughout, providing historical context and further information, as well as a timeline, historical biographies and a glossary in the end matter.

Download or read book Apollo s Creed written by Traci Shoblom and published by Gildan Media LLC aka G&D Media. This book was released on 2023-01-24 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you had the chance to talk to someone who went to the moon, what would you say? What questions would you ask? Imagine the stories, thoughts, and reflections he would share. “What was it like to be in zero gravity?” “Did you see any UFOs?” “Were you scared?” Imagine what it would be like to spend time with one of the twenty-four human beings in the history of our planet to go to the moon. Now imagine that the astronaut was your dad. Traci Shoblom is the youngest daughter of Apollo 12 astronaut Richard F. Gordon. She is an author, speaker, and a university lecturer. Although she’s published numerous nonfiction books, articles, academic chapters, scripts, and more, Apollo’s Creed is Traci’s “labor of love.” In it, she shares the stories, anecdotes, and wisdom that her dad told her at home—when the cameras were off. When you’ve sat upon a rocket and had it set on fire, been shot into outer space and then have been all alone in a space capsule, you get a different perspective on life, and that unique viewpoint lives on as Richard’s legacy. These are Traci’s stories—the funny ones, the profound ones, and the rare chance for a daughter to ask her dad, “So, what was it like to go to the moon?”

Download or read book The Dream Life of Astronauts written by Patrick Ryan and published by Dial Press. This book was released on 2016-07-05 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For readers of Tom Perrotta and Lorrie Moore, these nine unforgettable stories, all set in and around Cape Canaveral, showcase Patrick Ryan’s masterly understanding of regret and hope, relationships and family, and the universal longing for love. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY St. Louis Post Dispatch • Refinery 29 • Electric Literature The Dream Life of Astronauts balances heartbreak with wry humor as its characters try to make sense of the paths they find themselves on. A would-be Miss America auditions for a shady local talent scout over vodka and Sunny D; a NASA engineer begins to wonder if the woman he’s having an affair with is slowly poisoning her husband; a Boy Scout troop leader, recovering from a stroke, tries to protect one of his scouts from being bullied by his own sons; an ex-mobster living in witness protection feuds with the busybody head of his condo board; a grandmother, sentenced to driver’s ed after a traffic accident, surprises herself by falling for her instructor. Set against landmark moments—the first moon launch, Watergate, the Challenger explosion—these private dramas unfurl in startling ways. The Dream Life of Astronauts ratifies the emergence of an indelible new talent in fiction. Praise for The Dream Life of Astronauts “[Ryan] displays a gift for excavating the dashed hopes and yearnings that lie beneath. He is especially adept at capturing the point of view of children, with a Salingeresque understanding of their alienation, their vulnerability, their keen powers of observation.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times “Quietly commanding . . . A wry and smart collection—a beam of intelligent life from an author who clearly likes to probe the outer edges of the familiar.”—Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air “Ryan is a master of that old-fashioned, captivating storytelling that deceptively reads as effortless. . . . Ryan never actually sends his characters into space; but his orbits of the human heart are enough.”—The New York Times Book Review “Ryan brings a wry sense of intimacy to these dreamers who are always searching for a better life, for something new.”—BBC “Patrick Ryan’s short stories go down lightly—but that doesn’t mean they’re lightweight. In the best of them, Ryan’s transparent prose and seemingly casual tone sneakily ensnare you in tough moments and wryly rueful deflations of the heart and spirit.”—The Seattle Times “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to appreciate this funny collection of stories set around Cape Canaveral. Moon missions and shuttle launches take a backseat to the earthly predicaments faced by the eclectic cast of Boy Scouts, gangsters, grandmothers and beauty queens.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution “There is humanity and heart in each one of these tales, all rendered with nuance and depth that will leave a mark on your thoughts long past the final pages.”—Refinery29 “Patrick Ryan’s characters are people who are a little more beaten down than they know. They are not introspective by default, and yet, due to circumstances, they are forced to look into themselves and find something that, in his own phrase, feels like life.”—Literary Hub “The author illuminates [his] characters with pitch-perfect dialogue and period references that capture the various decades in which the stories take place.”—Publishers Weekly

Download or read book A is for Astronaut Blasting Through the Alphabet written by Clayton Anderson and published by Triangle Interactive, Inc. . This book was released on 2019-01-16 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Read Along or Enhanced eBook: Retired astronaut Clayton Anderson takes readers on an A to Z flight through the alphabet from astronaut and blastoff to spacewalk and Zulu Time. Topics cover the history of NASA, science, and practical aspects of being an astronaut using fun poems for each letter paired with longer expository text in the sidebars. Perfect for science buffs, budding astronauts, and astronomy lovers of all ages.

Download or read book Wonders All Around written by Bruce McCandless III and published by Greenleaf Book Group. This book was released on 2021-07-13 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Man You Never Knew You Knew It’s one of the most powerful and popular images in the history of space exploration: an astronaut in a snow-white spacesuit, untethered and floating alone in an expanse of blue. Bruce McCandless II is the man in that spacesuit, and Wonders All Around: The Incredible True Story of Astronaut Bruce McCandless II and the First Untethered Flight in Space is the thoroughly engrossing, extensively researched story of his inspiring life and groundbreaking accomplishments, as told by his son, a gifted writer and storyteller. Bruce McCandless II, a Navy fighter pilot, joined NASA in 1966. He was Houston’s capsule communicator—the person talking to the astronauts—as Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong made his giant leap for mankind in 1969. McCandless supported subsequent Apollo flights and developed technology and techniques his fellow astronauts used during the Skylab program, working behind the scenes until he was chosen to ride Challenger into space on the tenth shuttle mission. When he stepped into the cosmos to test the Manned Maneuvering Unit, he became a space flight icon. But the road to that incredible feat was not the sure bet it should have been for such a gifted man. Bruce McCandless II was an astronaut for 24 years, and his story encompasses the development of the space agency itself—the changes in focus, in personnel, in approach, and in the city of Houston that grew up with it. Wonders All Around is more than a catalogue of McCandless’s extraordinary achievements, which included work on the design, deployment, and repair of the Hubble Space Telescope. It is also a tale of perseverance and devotion. Recounted with insight and humor, this book explores the relationship between a father and a son, men of two very different generations. And finally, it is an exploration of the mindset of one unique individual, and the courage, imagination, and tenacity that propelled him and his country to their place in the forefront of space history. From Wonders All Around: "Bruce McCandless turned his Jeep around and screeched out of the cul-de-sac in front of our house for the ten-minute drive to the space center. The moon, a waxing crescent, was standing thirty degrees above the western horizon, and my father slipped into a sort of reverie as he sped toward it on NASA Road One. The moon floated serene and imperturbable in front of him like a black-and-white photograph of itself, Earth’s gravitational remora, her pale silent sister, movie star and legend, goddess and mirage. Bruce McCandless had just turned thirty-two. He was an engineer, a true son of science, a distant nephew of Sir Isaac Newton. He knew the formulas required for achieving orbital velocity, could tell you the fuel mixtures you needed, the stages and timing of rocket-booster separations. He brushed sentiments away like so many spider webs. But even he was having trouble believing that human beings—his colleagues and friends—were up there in the sky, getting ready to do something no one had ever done before. He was going to be part of it. He would be talking to two men as they walked on the moon. The young astronaut hadn’t quite reached his lifelong goal of touching the lunar surface, but he was close. He was almost there. He could feel it."

Download or read book Astronaut PiggyWiggy written by Diane Fox and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2002-02-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: PiggyWiggy, his beloved toy, Teddy and all their friends sample space flight con brio! They are properly outfitted, they know how to make repairs to their spaceship, and they are eager to make friends with aliens. They are, in fact, nearly ideal astronauts- trained and ready and fit -as long as they get back to Earth in time for breakfast!

Download or read book Astronaut Training written by Aneta Cruz and published by Astra Publishing House. This book was released on 2021-03-16 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Astrid's first space mission goes disastrously wrong, she realizes she needs a bit more training than she thought! Astrid is training to go to space! But as she builds her shuttle, cooks astronaut food, and practices floating in zero gravity, Dad tells Astrid that the ship's construction is too dangerous, she's too little to cook alone, and she's not allowed to flood the bathroom. That night, when Astrid dreams she's an astronaut, the challenges she encounters are overwhelming. Astrid realizes she isn't as ready as she thought. Back on Earth, Astrid turns to her loving and supportive Dad, who helps Astrid continue her astronaut training.

Download or read book Do You Want to Be an Astronaut written by Elsa Shiju and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2021-12-06 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Realistic Guide to Become an Astronaut at a Young Age

Download or read book Fallen Astronauts written by Colin Burgess and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2016-05-01 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Near the end of the Apollo 15 mission, David Scott and fellow moonwalker James Irwin conducted a secret ceremony unsanctioned by NASA: they placed on the lunar soil a small tin figurine called The Fallen Astronaut, along with a plaque bearing a list of names. By telling the stories of those sixteen astronauts and cosmonauts who died in the quest to reach the moon between 1962 and 1972, this book enriches the saga of humankind’s greatest scientific undertaking, Project Apollo, and conveys the human cost of the space race. Many people are aware of the first manned Apollo mission, in which Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee lost their lives in a fire during a ground test, but few know of the other five fallen astronauts whose stories this book tells as well, including Ted Freeman and C.C. Williams, who died in the crashes of their T-38 jets; the “Gemini Twins,” Charlie Bassett and Elliot See, killed when their jet slammed into the building where their Gemini capsule was undergoing final construction; and Ed Givens, whose fatal car crash has until now been obscured by rumors. Supported by extensive interviews and archival material, the extraordinary lives and accomplishments of these and other fallen astronauts—including eight Russian cosmonauts who lost their lives during training—unfold here in intimate and compelling detail. Their stories return us to a stirring time in the history of our nation and remind us of the cost of fulfilling our dreams. This revised edition includes expanded and revised biographies and additional photographs.

Download or read book Dad written by Bob Seay and published by Bob Seay. This book was released on 2021-04-09 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can an underachieving son reconnect with his father before it's too late? Jacob's life is already complicated enough. Now his Dad, whose mind isn't as sharp as it once was, is driving out for a visit. Or he was, before he got lost along the way. Now it's up to Jacob to get this right. A touching story about families, relationships, and aging parents. Editorial Review by Jon Michael Miller of Readers' Favorite In Dad by Bob Seay, we meet Jacob, our narrator and protagonist, in his mid to late thirties, struggling both in his professional world and in his marriage. With his "compulsion to tell everybody everything," he tells us his story as if we are his best friends, exposing all his failures and amusing quirks. Brooke, his wife, wants all his money, and he has lost his job as a high school teacher. In survival mode, he lives in Colorado and works as a ghost-writer of term papers for college students. He lives and works online from the back room of a laundry. His squalid existence is interrupted when he is informed by his brother back in Cincinnati that their dad, suffering from Alzheimer’s, has hit the road and is in a hotel room in Kansas City, Missouri. Jacob is the logical person to collect his old man. In so doing, he finds his dad having lunch with a hotel maid Amelia, who is watching over him. We soon become familiar with the sights along Interstate 70, as his dad tells Jacob about installing communications devices in St. Louis’s Gateway Arch. He has other stories about his activities on Mars and in submarines. Despite Jacob’s honest flaws and his relentless search for self and redemption, I came to like and even to identify with him. Yes, he is largely responsible, as he admits, for his own problems. Fortunately, he is in a stable, tight-knit family, all intent on taking care of their sad, but sometimes funny dad. But I felt that Dad is the vehicle of the real underlying story, which is Jacob trying to dig himself out of the hole he has dug for himself. He meets his female spiritual twin in the person of Amelia, not really a hotel housekeeper but a refugee from nursing and an aspiring artist. She escapes from an abusive, Confederate flag-flying boyfriend into Jacob’s black Mustang convertible, nicknamed Beast, which hauls Jacob back and forth several times between Denver, Kansas City, Topeka, and Cincinnati. “We’re all doing the best we can,” says Amelia compassionately. I was both sadly moved and often amused by Jacob’s search for a better life. And along with the story, we learn a lot from the various topics Jacob ghost-writes about—nursing burnout, the Feds, Buddhism, and neo-Nazis, to name only a few. Oh, yes, and the Stanford Marshmallow Index, which somehow nibbles at Jacob’s core. And we meet a quirky, loving family in the turmoil of losing the family patriarch, who is quite an overarching backdrop in his own right. Author Bob Seay dedicates his novel Dad “to all families with aging parents,” and I cannot imagine a more accurate portrayal or one more moving.

Download or read book Spaceman of Bohemia written by Jaroslav Kalfar and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An intergalactic odyssey of love, ambition, and self-discovery. Orphaned as a boy, raised in the Czech countryside by his doting grandparents, Jakub Prochv°zka has risen from small-time scientist to become the country's first astronaut. When a dangerous solo mission to Venus offers him both the chance at heroism he's dreamt of, and a way to atone for his father's sins as a Communist informer, he ventures boldly into the vast unknown. But in so doing, he leaves behind his devoted wife, Lenka, whose love, he realizes too late, he has sacrificed on the altar of his ambitions. Alone in Deep Space, Jakub discovers a possibly imaginary giant alien spider, who becomes his unlikely companion. Over philosophical conversations about the nature of love, life and death, and the deliciousness of bacon, the pair form an intense and emotional bond. Will it be enough to see Jakub through a clash with secret Russian rivals and return him safely to Earth for a second chance with Lenka? Rich with warmth and suspense and surprise, Spaceman of Bohemia is an exuberant delight from start to finish. Very seldom has a novel this profound taken readers on a journey of such boundless entertainment and sheer fun. "A frenetically imaginative first effort, booming with vitality and originality . . . Kalfar's voice is distinct enough to leave tread marks."-Jennifer Senior, New York Times

Download or read book I m a Dad and Astronaut Journal for Men Father Funny Gift written by Professional Astronaut and published by . This book was released on 2021-01-05 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Makes a funny gift for any man or woman who works as Astronaut, or knows a friend, family member who's Astronaut . Perfect present to mom, dad, grandma, sister, brother, grandpa, husband, papa, father in law, brother, uncle, friends for Father's Day, Anniversary, Christmas, Birthday, Valentine's Day, Retirement or any occasion. Journal gift - Ruled Notebook on a Beautiful Matte-finish cover. 120 pages 6x9 White-color paper Matte Finish Cover for an elegant look and feel.

Download or read book An Astronaut s Guide to Life on Earth written by Chris Hadfield and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2013-10-29 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Travel to space and back with astronaut Chris Hadfield's "enthralling" bestseller as your eye-opening guide (Slate). Colonel Chris Hadfield has spent decades training as an astronaut and has logged nearly 4000 hours in space. During this time he has broken into a Space Station with a Swiss army knife, disposed of a live snake while piloting a plane, and been temporarily blinded while clinging to the exterior of an orbiting spacecraft. The secret to Col. Hadfield's success-and survival-is an unconventional philosophy he learned at NASA: prepare for the worst- and enjoy every moment of it. In An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, Col. Hadfield takes readers deep into his years of training and space exploration to show how to make the impossible possible. Through eye-opening, entertaining stories filled with the adrenaline of launch, the mesmerizing wonder of spacewalks, and the measured, calm responses mandated by crises, he explains how conventional wisdom can get in the way of achievement — and happiness. His own extraordinary education in space has taught him some counterintuitive lessons: don't visualize success, do care what others think, and always sweat the small stuff. You might never be able to build a robot, pilot a spacecraft, make a music video or perform basic surgery in zero gravity like Col. Hadfield. But his vivid and refreshing insights will teach you how to think like an astronaut, and will change, completely, the way you view life on Earth — especially your own. "Hadfield proves himself to be not only a fierce explorer of the universe, but also a deeply thoughtful explorer of the human condition." —Maria Popova, Brain Pickings