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EDITORIAL INFORMATION

On January 12, 1997, Jerry M. Linenger took off aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis, en route to an historic rendezvous with the Russian Space Station Mir.One of the few American astronauts to formally partner with Russian cosmonauts, he had been selected to spend five months aboard Mir, participating in a joint initiative to lay the groundwork for a new International Space Station. But when he finally boarded Mir and took his first tour around the dark, ramshackle, incredibly cluttered space station, reminiscent of "six school bused all hooked together," Linenger knew he was in for a rough ride. Little did he know just how rough it would be, or how many brushes with death he and his Russian colleagues would face over the next 132 days. A hair-raising tale of survival in the forbidding depths of space, Off the Planet tells, for the first time, the complete story of that ill-starred mission. Not since Apollo 13 has a mission been beset by so many near-fatal catastrophes. In a dramatic, first-person narrative, Linenger chronicles the crew's heroic day-to-day struggle to keep themselves and their mission alive in the face of failing equipment on board and bureaucratic arrogance and political maneuvering on the ground. The first complete and uncensored account of one of the most dangerous missions in the history of space exploration, Off the Planet is an unforgettable tale of men at their limits facing extreme danger-and the triumph of the human spirit in the face of it all.

(Extracted from the dust cover).

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

-Contents.

-Preface.

-Part I. On the Planet.

1. Looking Upward.
2. Becoming an Astronaut.
3. Hello, Russia.
4. Hanging Out in Star City.
5. Training, Russian Style.
6. Tomorrow, Mir.
7. Crew Quarters.
8. Off to Work.

-Part II. Off the Planet.

9. Docking a One-Hundred-Ton Space Shuttle.
10. My First Days on Mir.
11. The Arrival of Vasily and Sasha.
12. "Fire!"
13. An Attempted Coverup.
14. Cosmonauts, Da! Mission Control, Nyet!
15. The Glories of Earth Gazing.
16. Profound Isolation.
17. Escaping a Near-Death Collision.
18. Housekeeping in Space.
19. Hurtling Into Nothingness.
20. Broken Trust.
21. Taking a Stroll.
22. Going Home.
23. Even the Air Tastes Sweet.

-Part III. Back On the Planet.

24. Home at Last.
25. Getting Back on My Feet.
26. Aftershock.
27. "Are You Glad You Flew on Mir?"

-Index.