Into That Silent Sea: Trailblazers of the Space Era, 1961-1965 (Outward Odyssey: A People's History...

Into That Silent Sea begins with the intimate stories of the first men in space, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and American astronaut Alan Shepard. Gagarin’s humble and horrifying upbringing in a war-ravaged Russia, difficulties in coping with fame, and his untimely death in a training flight contrast sharply with Shepard’s life and career, which are told in part based on recollections of the Mercury astronaut’s nurse, Dee O’Hara. The unforgettable lives of the other spacefarers in the Mercury and Vostok and Voskhod space programs are emblazoned in the pages that follow: Gherman Titov, the brash cosmonaut who helped save John Glenn’s house from burning down during a backyard barbecue; the controversial career of cosmonaut Valentine Tereshkova, the first woman in space; Gus Grissom and Scott Carpenter, both plagued by allegations of in-flight fiascos when the truth reveals much different tales of pilot skill and courage; cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who nearly died while conducting the first spacewalk; John Glenn, the quintessential American hero; the “Heavenly Twins,” cosmonauts who first circled the earth in separate spacecraft at the same time; three Soviet cosmonauts who shared a single, cramped capsule; and the contrasting careers of the “two Wallys,” Mercury 7’s Wally Schirra and Wally Funk, one of 13 women pilots tested for the astronaut program in the 1960s.

Dozens of international interviews and unparalleled access to Russian and American official documents and family records make this the most absorbing and complete history ever of the golden age of spaceflight.