Many people clearly remember the Columbia shuttle disaster in February 2003. However, what is often forgotten are the three men who were stuck on the International Space Station when the shuttle program was grounded following the Columbia disaster.In November 2002 astronauts Ken Bowersox and Donald Pettit and cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin were delivered to the International Space Station on the Endeavour to relieve Expedition 5.
Expedition 6 was scheduled to return to Earth in March 2003 on the Atlantis but after the Columbia disaster, that mission was cancelled and the shuttle program was grounded indefinitely leaving three men stranded on the US Space Station... This book is their story.
Two of the most compelling aspects of this thoroughly interesting and imminently enjoyable read are the astronauts reluctance to leave, even after being "stuck" their two months longer than initially scheduled and the fact that their return to Earth marked the first time United States astronauts returned to Earth on a Russian built spacecraft-- the Soyuz TMA-1.
This book is an extrapolation of an article author Chris Jones wrote for Esquire fully detailing the experiences of the stranded astronauts, their families, and how the Russian and American space programs brought them home after the shuttle program had been grounded.
In addition to tales of the astronauts of Expedition 6, Jones also gives interesting anecdotes of both the United States and Russian Space Programs of which he is quite familiar. This book makes an excellent companion to any fan of the US or Russian space programs complementing books such as Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff or the film, Apollo 13.
Related Links
Too Far From Home (Amazon.com link)
Expedition 6 (Wikipedia link)
Ken Bowersox (Wikipedia link)
Don Pettit (Wikipedia link)
Nikolai Budarin (Wikipedia link)
International Space Station (Wikipedia link)
Columbia Space Shuttle (Wikipedia link)
Endeavour Space Shuttle (Wikipedia link)
1 comment:
Too Far From Home sounds like somehting I would enjoy greatly. I read The Right Stuff many years ago and it my be my favorite book. I've always loved the space program and the hard knocks NASA has taken in recent years really sadden me.
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