Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Spaceshots and Snapshots of Projects Mercury and Gemini: A Rare Photographic History Hardcover – June 1, 2015 by John Bisney (Author), J. L. Pickering (University of New Mexico Press)



Like a pair of archaeologists discovering lost bits of history, John Bisney and J.L. Pickering took years to visit official NASA archives, as well as retired NASA and contractor employees who could give the backstory and identify people in photographs lying dormant in government file cabinets, attics and basements. This book is a wonderful compilation of the early Mercury and Gemini pioneers who helped America fly in space - from astronauts and NASA officials to lower-level types that did the real work of ensuring a safe flight. The attention to detail is amazing, naming individuals who would otherwise never be credited. My favorite is on page 44, showing the woman who hand-painted the insignias on three of the Mercury spacecraft. These were the people that Neil Armstrong mentioned in just about every speech he gave, insisting to audiences he stood on the shoulders of the over 200-thousand men and women who supported the space program.

This is the story of the people and events of Projects Mercury and Gemini, told through hundreds of unpublished and rare color and black-and-white photographs. Unlike other publications, which have illustrated the Space Race with well-known and easily accessible images, this history draws from the authors' private library of more than 125,000 high-resolution photos of the first two U.S. manned space programs from 1961 to 1966. 

Collected over a lifetime from public and private sources--including NASA archives, fellow photo collectors, retired NASA and news photographers, and auction houses--the images document American space missions of the Cold War era more comprehensively than ever before. Devoting a chapter to each flight for the first time, the authors also include richly-detailed captions, providing new insight into one of America's greatest triumphs.

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