“First American Into Space” by Robert Silverberg. Monarch Books SP1 Paperback Original (May 1961). First printing. Uncredited cover art
"Navy Commander Alan Shepard, 37, father of two girls, 13-year-old Laura and 9-year-old Juliana, had no desire to be a hero.
"What drove him to volunteer for the potentially dangerous task of probing the void beyond our planet? Mostly, it was the chance to serve his country in a role for which he felt well qualified, but also because he saw it as a personal challenge.
"No daredevil, he has a great, restless desire to do everything well, and then to do it a little better than the other fellow. As an astronaut, he could pit his strength against man and Nature with the added incentive of a thrilling ride beyond the Earth's atmosphere in a space capsule.
"This unusual and timely book tells the whole story of Commander Shepard and his fantastic journey into outer space." [From the Introduction]
Interesting perspective of the space program from 1961. Chapter 11 presents some speculations of what NASA had on the drawing board at the time, including the "Apollo Orbiting Laboratory," which would be lifted up not by the Saturn V, but by the more powerful and as yet undeveloped Nova rocket.
“First American Into Space” by Robert Silverberg. Monarch Books SP1 Paperback Original (May 1961). First printing. Uncredited cover art
"Navy Commander Alan Shepard, 37, father of two girls, 13-year-old Laura and 9-year-old Juliana, had no desire to be a hero.
"What drove him to volunteer for the potentially dangerous task of probing the void beyond our planet? Mostly, it was the chance to serve his country in a role for which he felt well qualified, but also because he saw it as a personal challenge.
"No daredevil, he has a great, restless desire to do everything well, and then to do it a little better than the other fellow. As an astronaut, he could pit his strength against man and Nature with the added incentive of a thrilling ride beyond the Earth's atmosphere in a space capsule.
"This unusual and timely book tells the whole story of Commander Shepard and his fantastic journey into outer space." [From the Introduction]
Interesting perspective of the space program from 1961. Chapter 11 presents some speculations of what NASA had on the drawing board at the time, including the "Apollo Orbiting Laboratory," which would be lifted up not by the Saturn V, but by the more powerful and as yet undeveloped Nova rocket.