The mammoth book of space exploration and disasters isn't actually all that mammoth, weighing in at a tad under 500 pages (a lot
of NASA/Apollo/Space books are meatier than this), so right there the first myth is dispelled.
This book is really a collection of excerpts from autobiographies, memoirs and from what I can tell post mission debriefings
covering the spectrum of human spaceflight (and later robotic spaceflight) from the days of Mercury and Vostok through Gemini and
Apollo to the Space shuttle, Mir and ending up with the Mars exploration missions.
More than half of the book is given to the early years of spaceflight, through the Apollo missions. The author focuses mainly on the NASA missions although interspersed are snippets detailing aspects of the Russian efforts as well. Some flights are given just a few paragraphs whilst others are given a more detailed look focusing mainly on the flights that had problems.
The major portion of the second half of the book is given to the Space shuttle and the Mir space station (the greater emphasis on Mir).
Given that most of the book is snippets from varying biographies etc, the book comes across as a little disjointed. A few of the statements in the book are incorrect but this does not detract much from the overall story the book is trying to convey.
I was really surprised that the author did not decide to detail the Columbia Shuttle disaster in more depth. Infact very little actual information was given as to the cause of the disaster and the author instead decided to include snippets from a congressional hearing with the NASA administrator.
It felt like the author had a good idea and was enthused about the project early on and either lost his way or became disinterested in the latter part of the book.
Overall I find it hard to recommend this book. There are much better books with much more information out there.
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