In this spellbinding account of an historic but troubled orbital mission, noted space historian Colin Burgess takes us back to an electrifying time in American history, when intrepid pioneers were launched atop notoriously unreliable rockets at the very dawn of human space exploration.

A nation proudly and collectively came to a standstill on the day this mission flew; a day that will be forever enshrined in American spaceflight history. On the morning of February 20, 1962, following months of frustrating delays, a Marine Corps war hero and test pilot named John Glenn finally blazed a path into orbit aboard a compact capsule named Friendship 7.

The book's tension-filled narrative faithfully unfolds through contemporary reports and the personal recollections of astronaut John Glenn, along with those closest to the Friendship 7 story, revealing previously unknown facts behind one of America's most ambitious and memorable pioneering space missions.

Autorentext

Australian author Colin Burgess grew up in Sydney's southern suburbs. Initially working in the wages department of a major Sydney afternoon newspaper (where he first picked up his writing bug) and as a sales representative for a precious metals company, he subsequently joined Qantas Airways as a passenger handling agent in 1970 and two years later transferred to the airline's cabin crew. He would retire from Qantas as an onboard Customer Service Manager in 2002, after 32 years' service. During those flying years several of his books on the Australian prisoner-of-war experience and the first of his biographical books on space explorers such as Australian payload specialist Dr. Paul Scully-Power and Space Shuttle Challenger teacher Christa McAuliffe were published. He has also written extensively on spaceflight subjects for astronomy and space-related magazines in Australia, the United Kingdom and the Unites States.

In 2003 the University of Nebraska Press appointed him series editor for the ongoing Outward Odyssey series of 12 books detailing the entire social history of space exploration and he was involved in co-writing three of these volumes. His first Springer-Praxis book, NASA's Scientist-Astronauts, co-authored with British space historian David J. Shayler, was released in 2007. Friendship 7 will be his eighth title with Springer-Praxis, for whom he is currently researching further books. He regularly attends astronaut functions in the United States and is well known to many of the pioneering space explorers, allowing him to conduct personal interviews for these books.

Colin and his wife Patricia still live just south of Sydney. They have two grown sons, two grandsons and a granddaughter.

Inhalt
Developing the Mercury-Atlas program.- The orbital flight of chimpanzee Enos.- A Marine on a mission.- Delays, and more delays.- Godspeed, John Glenn..- A drama-filled mission.- A safe splashdown.- Epilogue: Beyond the Mercury program.