Beyond : the astonishing story of the first human to leave our planet and journey into space /

Walker, Stephen, 1961-

Beyond : the astonishing story of the first human to leave our planet and journey into space / Stephen Walker. - First U.S. edition. - x, 502 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm

Includes bibliographical references (pages 469-486) and index.

"Originally published in the United Kingdom in 2021 by William Collins, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers." -- Verso. Prologue: Fifteen minutes before launch -- Four months earlier. Pallo's dogs ; Who let a Russian in here? ; The house in the forest ; Inauguration ; Shame and danger ; The American team ; The Soviet Team ; The King ; Subject 65 ; A hell of a ride -- Decision. The risk equation ; At our heals ; Ivan Ivanovich ; The biggest missile site in the world ; The price of progress ; Boosters and dummies ; The Military-Industrial Commission -- Final countdown. Brinkmanship ; Just in case ; The egg timer ; Chimp barbecue ; Chosen ; Opening pitch ; Roll out ; Night -- Launch. A mother's love ; Key to start ; The first seventeen minutes ; The next thirty-two minutes ; Moscow calling ; A beautiful halo ; Ba-boom! ; Gagarin's field ; Triumph and defeat ; The ball on the hill ; Party time -- Epilogue: Endgame.

"A young Russian sits inside a tiny capsule on top of the Soviet Union's most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile--originally designed to carry a nuclear warhead--and blasts into the skies. His name is Yuri Gagarin. And he is about to make history. Traveling at almost 18,000 miles per hour--ten times faster than a rifle bullet--Gagarin circles the globe in just 106 minutes. From his windows he sees the earth as nobody has before, crossing a sunset and a sunrise, crossing oceans and continents, witnessing its beauty and its fragility. While his launch begins in total secrecy, within hours of his landing he has become a world celebrity--the first human to leave the planet."--

9780062978158 0062978152


Gagarin, Yuri Alekseyevich, 1934-1968.


Astronauts--Soviet Union--Biography.
Astronautics--History.--Soviet Union
Manned space flight--History.


Biographies.

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