Fallen Astronauts: Heroes Who Died Reaching for the Moon by Colin Burgess and Kate Doolan, with Bert Vis. University of Nebraska Press (http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu), 233 North 8th Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0255, 2003, 272 pages, $40.00 (hardcover), $25.00 (softcover).
On 20 July 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. This pinnacle achievement in the history of the United States and the world, however, came with a significant cost. At the height of the space race between America and the Soviet Union in the 1960s, eight astronauts tragically perished: four died in aircraft crashes, three succumbed to fire in the Apollo 1 capsule, and another lost his life in an automobile accident. Colin Burgess and Kate Doolan provide comprehensive accounts of the lives and deaths of these men. Their exhaustive research and concise writing have produced an account that grips the reader’s attention from cover to cover. In addition, the deceased astronauts’ families provided many of the book’s 37 photographs, giving us a rare glimpse into both their public and private personas.
Fallen Astronauts begins with the life and death of Capt Theodore C. Freeman, USAF, an exceptional pilot who became an astronaut in 1963. While flying a normal training mission in October 1964, Freeman’s T-38 aircraft was struck by geese during the landing approach at Ellington AFB, Texas. Freeman thus became the first of America’s space heroes to die. Subsequent chapters focus on the fiery crash in February 1966 of another T-38, this one piloted by astronauts Elliott M. See and Charles Bassett, scheduled to fly together in Gemini 9; the deaths of Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee in the Apollo 1 fire at Cape Kennedy in January 1967; Ed Givens’s tragic automobile accident in a Houston suburb in June 1967; and the death of C. C. Williams, whose T-38 fell from the sky near Tallahassee, Florida, in October 1967. The loss of these men had a profound impact on America’s space program, including the selection of the 10 men who would walk on the moon. Burgess and Doolan point out that, had they lived, several of the eight would have left their footprints on the lunar surface.
Bert Vis contributes a fascinating chapter on the deaths of the Soviet Union’s cosmonauts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Like their American counterparts, these men also paid the ultimate price to further their country’s space program. One of the more interesting stories concerns Yuri Gagarin, who in 1961 became the first human to fly in space. Gagarin fell in and out of favor with the Soviet government and died when his MiG crashed in 1968. Another cosmonaut, Grigori Nelyubov, found himself booted out of the Soviet space program for disciplinary reasons—an action that might have led to his suicide. Vis also adds new details to the catastrophic ending of the Soyuz 11 flight of June 1971, in which three cosmonauts lost their lives.
Fallen Astronauts brilliantly chronicles the lives and deaths of men who had a calling to serve their nations in space. Don’t let the melancholy title fool you. This book is a joy to read!
Maj Michael P. Kleiman, USAFR
Kirtland AFB, New Mexico
Disclaimer
The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.
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