Review by Choice Review
Freeman paints an upbeat picture, explaining past efforts by astronauts and cosmonauts as well as their sponsors that are leading to the International Space Station. She concentrates on the skill, training, and dedication of flight and ground personnel rather than on mission failures, crises, delays, cost overruns, and political difficulties that have plagued the project from its beginning. She lays out detailed explanations of what the Station will carry for the well-being of its inhabitants and traces the genesis of the project from experiences on Skylab, Mir, and earlier Soviet manned stations. She presents a rationale for why the Station is needed, discussing such scientific programs as crystal growth, growing food, looking into tissue engineering, and performing other experiments in the microgravity conditions of an orbiting space station. Figures are mostly photographs and drawings. Appendixes list the astronauts who rode within Mir and when their flights took place, their psychological support means, and the NASA investigations that have been undertaken on Mir. Good nine-page bibliography and seven-page index. Well recommended to all who wish to know the background of the effort to get humans into space. All levels. W. E. Howard III; formerly, Universities Space Research Association
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
