Book info

• Title Space
• Author Tim Peake
• Year 2023
• Genre Non-Fiction

Only 656 people in human history have left Earth. In Space: The Human Story, astronaut Tim Peake traces the lives of these remarkable men and women who have forged the way, from Yuri Gagarin to Neil Armstrong, from Valentina Tereshkova to Peggy Whitson. Full of exclusive new stories, and astonishing detail only an astronaut would know, the book conveys what space exploration is really like: the wondrous view of Earth, the surreal weightlessness, the extraordinary danger, the surprising humdrum, the unexpected humour, the newfound perspective, the years of training, the psychological pressures, the gruelling physical toll, the thrill of launch and the trepidation of re-entry. The book also examines the surprising, shocking and often poignant stories of astronauts back on Earth, whose lives are forever changed as they readjust to terra firma.

Thoughts

Love this. Written before the recent Artemis mission but knowing who was going to be taking part and what they’d get up to, it documents the history of space travel with a unique view. You can find many many books detailing how mankind left earth and started travelling to infinity and beyond, but this one focuses in on the humans (and a little bit about the animals) who made it happen. Intriguing ideas like are astronauts completing the experiments, or are they experiment themselves are scattered throughout and it’s just a really neat, well written, interesting book about these special explorers.

Rating: 5 / 5