Along with a review of the development of crew survival and escape methods from the earliest designs to today's discussions of systems aboard the ISS, the author examines the wilderness training programs and abort simulations used to help prepare the crews.

David Shayler reveals how a crew is trained for almost all emergency eventualities on a mission into Earth orbit, to the moon during the 1960 and 1960s and the prospects of space rescue for future manned spaceflight programmes, and how hardware and systems can support and assist this given time, opportunity and good fortune.

Looks forward to the completion of the ISS, possibility of return to the moon, manned flights to Mars, and the prospect of safety and rescue far beyond Describes the role of Mission Control and recovery forces in ensuring the support from the ground to the crew in space Provides a unique range of historic archive of material on the Russian programme Presents a review of the Columbia accident, its investigation and various proposed rescue scenarios Details escape systems devised for rocket research aircraft, early manned spacecraft, abort and recovery options from Earth orbit, and from lunar distance Demonstrates that crew safety has been a factor in planning and mounting on all manned spaceflights

Inhalt
STS-107: Rescue or repair?.- Space: A final frontier.- Training to survive.- Pad escape.- Launch escape, 1: Escape towers.- Launch escape, 2: Ejection seats.- Away from Earth.- Return to Earth.