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Riding Rockets

the Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut
May 16, 2018iromsdahl rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
Above all else, Mike Mullane speaks the unpolished truth, as viewed from his own limited perspective. He writes with brutal matter-of-factness about his own vicious narrow-minded opinions at the onset of the introduction of women and non-military doctorate astronaut candidates in the class of 1978. He writes with bitterness about the Byzantine, completely opaque selection process used by George Abby and John Young to choose astronaut crews for the STS missions. He writes with frustration about the political machinations within NASA and without that often sacrificed more long-term space goals for shorter-term public relations objectives. And he combines it all the same unfitted joy of space and exploration common within other astronaut biographies. If you have any interest in the STS program, Mullane offers a unique, invaluable perspective. Includes analysis of both the Challenger and Columbia safety failures.