The Real Space Cowboys 2018 Expanded Hardcover Edition!

Nearly 200 photos of the Mercury 7, Marshall Space Flight Center, and more!Includes a Bonus DVD featuring vintage documentaries, "Gotcha's" and gags, astronaut interviews, and NASA mission videos!The Real Space Cowboys tells the story of America's Mercury 7 astronauts, who volunteered to be the first to explore the unknown perils of spaceflight beginning in the late 1950s. Detailed interviews with the Mercury 7 Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, Gordon Cooper, and Deke Slayton provide a first-hand account at the competition, controversies, training, and hard work that took them a step beyond their former lives as cocky military pilots. The book also tells the story of the twelve brave Moonwalkers who actually landed on the Moon, Wernher von Braun and his team of rocket scientists who developed the technology to propel men and materials into space, the Russian Cosmonauts and Chinese Taikonauts who helped fuel the competitive space race, plus humorous stories about the pranks and goofs the Mercury 7 enjoyed to pull on each other. Written by Ed Buckbee, a public affairs officer under Wernher von Braun who founded U.S. Space Camp and was personal friends with the Mercury 7, The Real Space Cowboys is a fitting tribute to the origins of manned space flight and the men who blazed that trail into the unknown. With the 50th Anniversary of the first Moon landing scheduled for July 20, 2019, now is the perfect time to reflect on these great pilots as future pioneers plan new adventures in space flight. Read more