num_pages: 320
description: Have you ever wondered what it would be like to find yourself strapped to a giant rocket thats about to go from zero to 17500 miles per hour? Or to look back on the earth from outer space and see the surprisingly precise line between day and night? Or to stand in front of the Hubble telescope wondering if the emergency repair youre about to make will inadvertently ruin humankinds chance to unlock the universes secrets? Mike Massimino has been there and in Spaceman he puts you inside the suit with all the zip and buoyancy of life in microgravity.Massiminos childhood space dreams were born the day Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon but his journey to realizing those dreams was as unlikely as it is captivating. Growing up in a working-class Long Island family Massimino catapulted himself to Columbia and then MIT only to flunk his qualifying exams and be rejected twice by NASA before making it to the final round of astronaut selectionwhere he was told his poor eyesight meant hed never make the cut. But even that couldnt stop him from finally earning his wings making the jump to training in T-38 Air Force jets and preparing his bodyand soulfor the journey to the cosmos.Taking us through the surreal wonder and beauty of his first spacewalk the tragedy of losing friends in the Columbia shuttle accident and the development of his enduring love for the Hubble telescopewhich hed be tasked with saving on his final mission Massimino has written an ode to never giving up and the power of teamwork to make anything possible. Spaceman invites us into a rare wonderful world where the nerdiest science meets the most thrilling adventure and pulls back a curtain on just what having the right stuff really means.
language: English
title: Spaceman: An Astronaut's Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe
publisher: Crown Archetype