Saturday Diversion: Five Books on Space Exploration
Curious about America's space program? Here's where to start!
One Small Step…
Welcome to the first edition of TLP’s Saturday Diversion!
If you’ve read us for a while now, you’ve probably noticed that space exploration is one of my personal enthusiasms. Just this week, NASA released a lamentably flat budget request and welcomed astronauts from the SpaceX Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station back to Earth. The Europa Clipper robotic mission to Jupiter’s icy moon remains on track for launch later this year, and of course the Hubble and Webb space telescopes regularly beam down spectacular images of the cosmos.
Here are five of my favorite books on the subject (plus some honorable mentions) as well as some music from various space-themed movies and shows. Enjoy!
Carrying The Fire: An Astronaut’s Journeys: Michael Collins, command module pilot on Apollo 11, wrote what’s still hands-down the best astronaut memoir. In clear, lucid prose, he explains the complex technical challenges involved in human spaceflight and traveling to the Moon with impressive ease. Most of all, though, Collins brings a more philosophical perspective to his own voyages as well as what Apollo meant—and still means—to all of us back here on Earth.
First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong: The basis for an under-appreciated 2018 biopic starring Ryan Gosling, James R. Hansen’s biography shows us why Neil Armstrong was exactly the right person to be the first human being to set foot on another world. Armstrong’s “laconic professionalism” kept him focused on the task at hand; more importantly, he “refused to impose his own understanding of this epochal event on the world or the future.”
Into the Black: The Extraordinary Untold Story of the First Flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia and the Astronauts Who Flew Her: Don’t let the title fool you—British aerospace chronicler Rowland White does more than just narrate the first flight of the space shuttle Columbia. It’s as much a history of the space shuttle program’s early days and a glimpse into the virtually unknown Manned Orbiting Laboratory program as it is a page-turning account of Columbia’s maiden voyage.
This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age: William E. Burrows provides probably the best single overall history of the space age up to the turn of the millennium. He covers it all, from the work of early rocket pioneers Robert Goddard, Hermann Oberth, and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky to the U.S.-Soviet race to the Moon and the advent of the space shuttle to the robotic exploration of the Solar System.
Discovering Mars: A History of Observation and Exploration of the Red Planet: Though it occasionally veers too far into dry academic prose, this history of humanity’s obsession with Mars jointly written by William Sheehan and Jim Bell shows just how fast and how far we’ve come when it comes to our knowledge of the Red Planet. Thanks to robotic explorers like the Curiosity rover and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, we know far more about Mars today than we did just twenty-five years ago—to say nothing of five decades or a century ago.
Honorable Mentions
A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts: Andrew Chaikin’s eminently readable account of each and every Apollo mission, including interviews with a number of now-late Apollo astronauts.
Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery: Astronaut Scott Kelly’s memoir of his career as an astronaut and the year he spent aboard the International Space Station in 2015-6.
Dragonfly: An Epic Adventure of Survival in Outer Space: Journalist Bryan Burrough—better known today for his books Public Enemies and Days of Rage—tells the harrowing tale of American astronauts aboard Russia’s Mir space station in the 1990s.
Other Saturday Diversions
Some of my favorite tracks from scores to movies, TV shows, and video games set in space:
“Countdown” and “Liftoff and Staging” from Matt Morton’s score for the excellent 2019 documentary Apollo 11—composed entirely with instruments available in 1969.
“Make It So,” a rousing and moving (at least for this long-time Star Trek fan) track from Stephen Barton and Frederik Wiedmann’s soundtrack for season three of Star Trek: Picard.
“The Hyperspace Jump,” an awe-inducing orchestration off Kevin Kiner’s score for Star Wars: Ahsoka.
“Vigil,” the ethereal main theme to the Mass Effect video game trilogy by composer Jack Wall.
“Breaking the Sound Barrier,” composer Bill Conti’s The Planets-inspired soundtrack to the classic film The Right Stuff.
“All Systems Go—The Launch,” from the late, great James Horner’s score to another classic film, Apollo 13.