Liftoff: The Story of America's Adventure in Space

This may be a unique book in that it's an overview of the US Space program to the late '80s with personal stories and insights of a central character in the form of the astronaut-author. It doesn't try to be exhaustive on either the program or Collins' role. Collins brings a generous personality and entertaining style. The result is "just right" for depth vs.brevity, big history vs. personal detail and fact vs insight. Cesar's review had a good point about this being a technical book for non-technical readers -- I'd say technical ones as well, but there are many more detailed accounts elsewhere. It's also suitable for High School level readers. Adults, even with technical backgrounds, won't feel like they're reading something below their level. Mr Dean's illustrations deserve mention as well. They're clear, topical and well placed within the narrative -- something easier to do with line drawings than photographs. They were a successful choice instead of photos.

If you've ever read Michael Collins' "Carrying the Fire," you owe it to yourself to get a copy of "Liftoff." In "Liftoff," Collins relates the history of NASA's spacecrafts and the people who created them. The best aspect of his story is that it is not a timeline of spacecraft A, spacecraft B, spacecraft C, etc. "Liftoff" is an appreciation of the clunky Mercury capsule, the complex and triumphant Apollo spacecrafts, the grace (or at least relative grace) of the space shuttle, and so many other NASA innovations. Partnered alongside the machines are the early NASA pioneers who envisioned them. Collins lets you in on the aims behind their designs. He also writes about these men as professionals, some of them visionaries, and others just nuts-and-bolts engineers. So "Liftoff" is a great read for what it is and what it is not. It is not a NASA history with the adventure, drama, and action of space flight (although that is often very exciting to read). Instead, it is a technical book for non-technical readers, a NASA history for non-space buffs, and a personal story about machines.After reading Collins' "Carrying the Fire" and "Liftoff," I believe that no other author has ever written as well about NASA. Only Andrew Chaikin has come close with "A Man on the Moon." Collins transcends what an astronaut can say about space travel, and he does it with humor, an almost poetic fluidity, and the perspective of someone who was there.

Fantastic! Michael Collins really knows how to write! He turns non-fiction material into a real page turner. I learned a lot from this book. It is well organized and includes a U.S. manned spaceflight log at the end. This book not only provides information about NASA from Mercury to the shuttle but also includes information on military research with aircraft predating the space program and how NASA itself was formed. Collins' own expeirience as an astronaut makes the book even more exciting. The first chapter is a detailed firsthand account of the Apollo 11 flight, the first mission to land on the moon, upon which Collins was a crew member. Later in the book he writes a similar type of account about his earlier Gemini 10 flight which involved an EVA (spacewalk). The illustrations are also beautiful. James Dean does a good job capturing the essence of space exploration in his detailed sketches. If you know nothing about NASA and want to learn, it's time to read this book!!! -Roxana Safipour

I rarely look at a book for its pictures, but in "LIFTOFF" the illustrations are fabulous! I remember seeing this images reproduced in the exhibit "You Are Here, _Wondering_ Through the Solar System" at the Austin Children's Museum... by far the best part of that exhibit!