posted 04-13-2008 04:10 AM               

I told Colin when I opted to take on this project that I probably now had some insight into the mind of a backup astronaut crewmember who had just been assigned to a prime crew. You get the sense of accomplishment, but at the same time you also feel the weight of the work needed to be done to complete the task and you wonder if you really are up to the job. Lord willing, I am. But I will be saying a few "Al Shepherd's Prayers" (be it a real prayer or one introduced by "The Right Stuff") until I do finally deliver the manuscript.

Anyway, enough about that. I would like to at least tell you my working title for the book and a little taste of what is intended to be about. It will be called "Outposts On The Frontier: Stations and Laboratories in Earth Orbit". The intent is to cover space stations from MOL and Salyut all the way to the ISS. Skylab will also be covered in a fashion that compliments the fourthcoming "Homesteading Space" title. I also plan to throw in some ESA Spacelab and Spacehab coverage as well, since even though they weren't space stations in the strict sense, they were space laboratories dedicated to microgravity based research.

posted 04-15-2008 09:52 AM               

The book provides a very good overview of Man's successes and failures at performing long-duration space flights. The following programs are covered in the book: Salyut, Mir, Skylab, Shuttle-Spacelab, Shuttle-Mir and finally the International Space Station (ISS). Future plans conclude the book with a look at the Chinese space program. It is a very enjoyable read throughout, readily accessible to the non-specialists and provides a excellent starting point for those who would like to go deeper into the programs described in this book, with existing litterature and forthcoming ones (Salyut and Skylab). Color plates showing the evolution of the construction of the ISS is a nice addition.

posted 04-15-2008 04:06 PM               

Jay, good luck with your book. Mine was not meant to be a very in-depth coverage, as can be seen by its length, but perhaps the first to contain all aspects of Manned Space Stations, those that flew, and those that didn't. I too included ASTP and other mission that were not strictly speaking Space Stations, such as the Soyuz 4 and 5 docking, in an effort to show the progression towards the permanent manned outpost of today. In the same vein I included Spacelab, and Polyus.

I believe that a book with an in-depth human interest side to it on this subject is overdue, and I wish you well with it.

posted 06-14-2009 05:39 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by pbaker:
Jay, good luck with your book.

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posted 11-19-2009 02:04 AM               

Last month I did my second major research trip to Houston. Half that time was spent at JSC conducting interviews and visiting some of the places on site responsible for ISS support. The other half was spent at the University of Houston Clear Lake campus digging through the NASA archives for information about Skylab, ASTP and early shuttle. I must say, I found some good stuff there. To any other researcher, the archives are a really good resource of primary research material and the staff on hand of Shelly Kelly and Jean Grant are ready, willing and able to provide assistance as needed.

I also took a side trip to KSC to watch Ares 1-X fly. Granted I know any coverage of Ares 1-X and Constellation in my book will be only a few paragraphs at most, but I felt it was best to get some first hand data on how it performed.

posted 05-11-2012 04:59 PM               

I've been pulling a few all night writing sessions lately as I work dilligently to get my manuscript wrapped up. I can now say that I can "write in my sleep" as it seems I can be most productive when I am half asleep (probably because I am not obsessing too much on somthing). There have been some really great times and some days where the grind just seems to make you want to chuck the computer monitor out the window. But, you push through. You have to as a lot of people are counting on you. They put their reputations on the line and you have to deliver. Quitting might be easy, but living with yourself after will not be.

Early this morning, I passed a big milestone as I managed to finish 13 of 14 chapters. Now of course there is still a lot of work to go. But, it looks like I can get the final chapter of the manuscript done by this week. Then of course things will have to go on a "diet" of sorts and all the little stuff associated with this project will have to be done before the official submission can take place. But, put simply, I am in the home stretch now.

When I said yes to taking on this project after Colin's invite, little did we know it would be a nearly five year odyssey for me. I've had the opportunity to experience some very cool things along the way as I've interviewed astronauts, engineers, managers and space workers. I've got to see shuttle launches and visit NASA centers to see things the general public normally doesn't. I've dug through articles online and paper archives in San Diego and at JSC, acquired over a dozen books (many of them NASA reports) and watched hours of NASA TV and other archival footage while also listening to old recordings from engineers and astronauts that hadn't been heard in over 30 years.

As I've been looking over my manuscript, I am proud of what I've accomplished. It has been said that when movie directors tackle films, what ends up on celluloid isn't necessarily the same thing as what they originally started with. Let me tell you, it is exactly the same in book writing. Part of that comes down to how the program evolved, and I also had to make some decisions about what to focus on as well and what to cut for space (and I still have some decisions to make on that). Doing a history of no less than eleven space stations going from MOL to ISS and throwing in other stuff is not easy for a single book.