I'd like to meet:
The All-American Boys, by Apollo astronaut, Walter Cunningham, was released on the Fourth of July 2003.How did astronauts react to the Columbia disaster, to the Challenger accident and the Apollo 1 fire? How do the present-day astronauts feel about flying the Shuttle Orbiter? How safe is the Orbiter? Is the International Space Station more than just a destination for the space shuttle? The All-American Boys provides candid answers to these and other important questions.Cunningham tells how NASA lost its way and who is responsible. He shares his views on how NASA management has measured up to the reputation they inherited from the Sixties and Seventies - the days of Apollo.Cunningham is both admiring of our Russian competitors in the race to the moon and critical of how they became our indispensable partners on the International Space Station. He tells what it has cost the United States for this dubious "partnership" and how it gave birth to the most dangerous period for astronauts in the last forty years.The book is a no-holds-barred; behind the scenes look at the manned space program beginning in the high-flying Sixties and Seventies - the golden age of manned spaceflight - through the shuttle Columbia disaster. The All-American Boys recounts the human side of the space program. It provides honest insight into the men and the motives for the moon landings. Cunningham describes the fun and games, the office politics, the pecking order, and the easy rewards of playing Don Juan the astronaut. Along the way, The All-American Boys resonates with passion for humanity's destiny in space.These are only a few of the topics addressed in The All-American Boys. Cunningham discusses the consequences of the Columbia disaster and lays out his own road map for NASA to regain credibility and direction."The most realistic look yet at astronaut life," is what the Chicago Sun-Times had to say about The All-American Boys, while the Los Angeles Times described it as, "The best of the astronaut books."Cunningham is a fighter pilot (Col. USMCR-Retired), physicist, NASA's second civilian astronaut, pilot of Apollo 7, the first manned flight of the program to land a man on the moon, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, lecturer, and host of Lift-Off To Logic, a radio call-in talk Show.-------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------Available in paperback as of October 2004, this revised edition includes an update of recent NASA programs, Shuttle-Mir, the International Space Station, and the partnership with the Russians. Walt's observations on NASA's successes and failures are "tell it like it is." It includes commentary on the Shuttle Columbia disaster and his suggestions on what it will take to help get NASA back on track.
