posted 02-02-2004 05:22 AM               

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Originally posted by SRB:
Looks like a great book. I can hardly wait to see them sold on eBay with in person autographs by Shepard himself.

Steve

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Don't forget the questions on this site asking whether and when Shepard would undertake a book signing tour! ;-)

posted 03-26-2004 09:40 AM               

John

posted 03-26-2004 10:14 AM               

As I raised in the interview, the 'In Space' section of "Candle" steps back from Shepard's personal story to tell of the larger space race. History enthusiasts will be familiar with many of these stories, especially if you have read the other astronaut biographies and titles from which Thompson cites, but they are enjoyable to read again here. There are few factual errors (such as describing the service module engine as responsible for TLI [as opposed to the S-IVB]) but they are not overly distracting.

The rivalry and friendship between John Glenn and Alan Shepard runs throughout the book. Much has been written and said of Buzz Aldrin's desire to be the first man on the Moon, but there are parallels to be drawn with how Glenn and Shepard jockeyed for the first Mercury flight and Glenn's reaction after the decision was made.

posted 03-26-2004 12:00 PM            

I am not sure, however, how Thompson justifies his statement in the interview he did with you: "As it turned out, Glenn - despite his anger over losing the first flight to Shepard - got the bigger prize because his orbital flight put us ahead of the Russians for the first time."

Six months before Glenn's flight, Gherman Titov flew for over a day in space, on a 17-orbit flight, giving the USSR two orbital flights to their credit. Glenn's flight lasted three orbits and less than five hours. While it put America in the game, I don't see by any stretch of the imagination that it could be considered "ahead" - especially when the next Russian flights were the tandem Vostok 3 and 4 missions, demonstrating fast, precision launches and mission durations (almost four days for Vostok 3) far beyond Mercury's endurance capabilities.

posted 03-26-2004 12:05 PM               

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"Glenn's flight -- each moment of which was broadcast live on television -- had finally pulled the United States alongside the Russians in the space race. The previous summer, a few weeks after Gus Grissom's flight, the Soviets had sent their second cosmonaut, Gherman Titov, into space for a seventeen-orbit flight. But now, with Glenn's flight, the United States had edged ahead: three astronauts versus two cosmonauts."

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