Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the...
Zimmerman, Robert / Robert Zimmerman / Joseph Henry Press
After losing the race to the moon, the Soviet Union responded by launching an ambitious program to build the first space stations. Leaving Earth is the definitive account of the human race's first tentative steps in the permanent habitation of space. The commander of the International Space Station's first crew, Bill Shepard, refers to his orbiting home as "Alpha." It is a moniker frowned upon by the Russians--and for good reason. It is not, a...