“An engrossing report.”—Booklist “Vividly captures the challenges and privations [Dr. Linenger] endured both before and during his flight.”—Library Journal Nothing on earth compares to Off the Planet—Dr. Jerry Linenger’s dramatic account of space exploration turned survival mission during his 132 days aboard the decaying and unstable Russian space station Mir. Not since Apollo 13 has an American astronaut faced so many catastrophic malfunctions and life-threatening emergencies in one mission. In his remarkable narrative, Linenger chronicles power outages that left the crew in complete darkness, tumbling out of control; chemical leaks and near collisions that threatened to rupture Mir’s hull; and most terrifying of all—a raging fire that almost destroyed the space station and the lives of its entire crew.
Review quote:
'Off The Planet: Surviving Five Perilous Months Aboard the Space Station Mir' by Jerry M. Linenger is one of the most readable. Off the Planet sheds new light on such present developments as the Russians' determination to continue the Mir after their repeated commitments to abandon it, combined with their commitments to the International Space Station. The book makes one think that perhaps the United States would be better off partnering in space with, say, Somalia or Lower Slobovia. Russian Psychologist, cure thyself and thy kindred. (The Wahington Times)
The author, a NASA astronaut, orbited the earth more than two thousand times in the space station Mir and became the first American to spacewalk outside a foreign spacecraft. But he paid a high price for these distinctions. Inside, Mir was as mess, and several power failures lefts its inhabitants in total darkness. Worst of all, Linenger reports, was the lack of professionalism among their Russian handlers. "Mission control in Moscow became our enemy rather than our friend." he writes, "our nemesis rather than our support structure." Mission control threatened to cut the Russian astronauts pay if they performed poorly, and dangled bonuses for doing well. And mission control's propensity to micromanage was so extreme that the astronauts had their every activity programmed down to the minute. (The Washington Post Book World)
Table of contents:
Part I: On the Planet. Looking Upward. Becoming an Astronaut. Hello, Russia. Hanging Out in Star City. Training, Russian Style. Tomorrow, Mir. Crew Quarters. Off to Work. Part II: Off the Planet. Docking a One-Hundred-Ton Space Shuttle. My First Days on Mir. The Arrival of Vasily and Sasha. "Fire!" An Attempted Coverup. Cosmonatus, Da! Mission Control, Nyet! The Glories of Earth Gazing. Profound Isolation. Escaping a Near-Death Collision. Housekeeping in Space. Hurtling Into Nothingness. Broken Trust. Taking a Stroll. Going Home. Even the Air Tastes Sweet. Part III: Back on the Planet. Home at Last. Getting Back on My Feet. Aftershock. "Are You Glad You Flew on Mir?"
It was like nothing on Earth. "An unvarnished account of his near-disastrous stay, in 1997, on Russia's creaky space station...an engrossing report that NASA's publicity machine will bemoan."--Booklist. "[Linenger's] frank, personable prose shows readers what it's like to be an astronaut--or at least to be this particular astronaut, trying, along with his Russian companions, to live and work with good humor on an 11-year-old, half-broken, famously flammable space station as its air fills with antifreeze that is leaking out of shoddy cooling lines."--Publishers Weekly. "NASA astronaut Linenger spent five months aboard the Russian space station Mir, a spacecraft operating far beyond its design life. His personal account vividly captures the challenges and privation he endured both before and during his flight."--Library Journal.
Review quote:
'Off The Planet: Surviving Five Perilous Months Aboard the Space Station Mir' by Jerry M. Linenger is one of the most readable. Off the Planet sheds new light on such present developments as the Russians' determination to continue the Mir after their repeated commitments to abandon it, combined with their commitments to the International Space Station. The book makes one think that perhaps the United States would be better off partnering in space with, say, Somalia or Lower Slobovia. Russian Psychologist, cure thyself and thy kindred. (The Wahington Times)
The author, a NASA astronaut, orbited the earth more than two thousand times in the space station Mir and became the first American to spacewalk outside a foreign spacecraft. But he paid a high price for these distinctions. Inside, Mir was as mess, and several power failures lefts its inhabitants in total darkness. Worst of all, Linenger reports, was the lack of professionalism among their Russian handlers. "Mission control in Moscow became our enemy rather than our friend." he writes, "our nemesis rather than our support structure." Mission control threatened to cut the Russian astronauts pay if they performed poorly, and dangled bonuses for doing well. And mission control's propensity to micromanage was so extreme that the astronauts had their every activity programmed down to the minute. (The Washington Post Book World)
Table of contents:
Part I: On the Planet. Looking Upward. Becoming an Astronaut. Hello, Russia. Hanging Out in Star City. Training, Russian Style. Tomorrow, Mir. Crew Quarters. Off to Work. Part II: Off the Planet. Docking a One-Hundred-Ton Space Shuttle. My First Days on Mir. The Arrival of Vasily and Sasha. "Fire!" An Attempted Coverup. Cosmonatus, Da! Mission Control, Nyet! The Glories of Earth Gazing. Profound Isolation. Escaping a Near-Death Collision. Housekeeping in Space. Hurtling Into Nothingness. Broken Trust. Taking a Stroll. Going Home. Even the Air Tastes Sweet. Part III: Back on the Planet. Home at Last. Getting Back on My Feet. Aftershock. "Are You Glad You Flew on Mir?"
It was like nothing on Earth. "An unvarnished account of his near-disastrous stay, in 1997, on Russia's creaky space station...an engrossing report that NASA's publicity machine will bemoan."--Booklist. "[Linenger's] frank, personable prose shows readers what it's like to be an astronaut--or at least to be this particular astronaut, trying, along with his Russian companions, to live and work with good humor on an 11-year-old, half-broken, famously flammable space station as its air fills with antifreeze that is leaking out of shoddy cooling lines."--Publishers Weekly. "NASA astronaut Linenger spent five months aboard the Russian space station Mir, a spacecraft operating far beyond its design life. His personal account vividly captures the challenges and privation he endured both before and during his flight."--Library Journal.