Beyond : the astonishing story of the first human to leave our planet and journey into space / Stephen Walker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Walker, Stephen, 1961- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gagarin, Yuri Alekseyevich, 1934-1968.

Gagarin, Yuri Alekseyevich.

Astronauts--Soviet Union--Biography.

Astronauts.

Soviet Union.

Astronautics--Soviet Union--History.

Astronautics.

History.

Manned space flight--History.

Manned space flight.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

x, 502 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm

Edition:

First U.S. edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2021]

Summary:

"A young Russian sits inside a tiny capsule on top of the Soviet Union's most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile--originally designed to carry a nuclear warhead--and blasts into the skies. His name is Yuri Gagarin. And he is about to make history. Travelling at almost 18,000 miles per hour--ten times faster than a rifle bullet--Gagarin circles the globe in just 106 minutes. From his windows he sees the earth as nobody has before, crossing a sunset and a sunrise, crossing oceans and continents, witnessing its beauty and its fragility. While his launch begins in total secrecy, within hours of his landing he has become a world celebrity--the first human to leave the planet."-- Publisher's description.

Contents:

Act I Four Months Earlier

1 Pallo's Dogs p. 9

2 Who Let a Russian in Here? p. 19

3 The House in the Forest p. 29

4 Inauguration p. 43

5 Shame and Danger p. 50

6 The American Team p. 63

7 The Soviet Team p. 76

8 The King p. 89

9 Subject 65 p. 107

10 A Hell of a Ride p. 123

Act II Decision

11 The Risk Equation p. 139

12 At Our Heels p. 149

13 Ivan Ivanovich p. 161

14 The Biggest Missile Site in the World p. 171

15 The Price of Progress p. 184

16 Boosters and Dummies p. 193

17 The Military-Industrial Commission p. 205

Act III Final Countdown

18 Brinkmanship p. 215

19 Just in Case p. 225

20 The Egg Timer p. 232

21 Chimp Barbecue p. 237

22 Chosen p. 243

23 Opening Pitch p. 254

24 Roll Out p. 261

25 Night p. 269

Act IV Launch

26 A Mothers Love p. 277

27 Key to Start p. 286

28 The First Seventeen Minutes p. 304

29 The Next Thirty-Two Minutes p. 314

30 Moscow Calling p. 322

31 A Beautiful Halo p. 331

32 Ba-Boom! p. 342

33 Gagarin's Field p. 349

34 Triumph and Defeat p. 361

35 The Ball on the Hill p. 369

36 Party Time p. 379.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 419-486) and index.

ISBN:

9780062978158

0062978152

OCLC:

1244126203