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list price: $14.95
edition:Paperback
also available: eBook
category: Science
published: May 2008
ISBN:9780887847936
publisher: House of Anansi Press Inc

Out of Orbit

The True Story of How Three Astronauts Found Themselves Hundreds of Miles Above the Earth With No Way Home

by Chris Jones

tagged: science & technology, aeronautics & astronautics, space science
Description

In February 2003, American astronauts Donald Pettit and Kenneth Bowersox and Russian flight engineer Nikolai Budarin were on a routine fourteen-week mission maintaining the International Space Station. But then the space shuttle Columbia exploded far beneath them. With the launch program suspended indefinitely, these astronauts had suddenly lost their ride back to earth.

Out of Orbit chronicles the efforts of the beleaguered mission controls in Houston and Moscow as they worked frantically against the clock, ultimately settling on a plan that felt, at best, like a long shot. Latched to the side of the space station was a Russian-built Soyuz TMA-1 capsule, the rocket equivalent of a 1976 Gremlin. Despite the inherent danger, the Soyuz became the only hope to return Bowersox, Budarin, and Pettit home. Their harrowing journey back to earth is a powerful reminder that space travel remains an incredibly dangerous pursuit.

About the Author

Chris Jones

Chris Jones has worked as both a graphic designer and an illustrator. His illustrations appear in books, graphic novels, magazines, and educational materials. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Awards
  • Short-listed, Ottawa Book Award
Editorial Reviews

[Too Far From Home] strikes a perfect balance between the ordinary business of living in space and the high adventure that occurs when things go wrong....Chris Jones will have you on the edge of your seat. This is a story with chills and thrills along the way...

— Globe and Mail

A nail-biter right to the end.

— Ottawa Citizen

...Jones spins out the story of their return with enough suspense and tension that the outcome feels in doubt for pages....[this book] should satisfy even the most dedicated space buff with his incredible attention to details.

— Winnipeg Free Press

[Jones] succeeds in bringing out the human side of a very perilous job...

— Times-Colonist

...a fast-paced suspense story...a nail-biter right to the end.

— Ottawa Citizen

...frank talk enhances readers' identification with the astronauts, making their drama all the more engrossing.

— Publishers Weekly

Jones portrays...white-knuckled times well...

— Quill & Quire

...works on a number of levels: As a history of the space program, as a study of a particular mission, as a thoughtful probing into what it takes to be an astronaut or cosmonaut, as a paean to these gifted space travellers and as a celebration of the beauty of space....a smooth and readable story...

— Vancouver Sun

Out of print

This edition is not currently available in bookstores. Check your local library or search for used copies at Abebooks.

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