Before Lift-off: The Making of a Space Shuttle Crew

New Series in NASA History

by Henry S.F. Cooper Jr.

Winner of the Eugene Emme Astronautical Literature Prize from the American Astronautical Society For eight days in October 1984, seven men and women orbitied the Earth on Space Shuttle Mission 41-G. The mission has begun a year earlier; however, with the select of its crew. Before Lift-off is the extraordinary day-to-day story of these astronauts' training and flight-and is as close as most of us will ever come to flying on the space shuttle. New Yorker writer Henry Cooper obtained unprecedented permission from NASA to follow the 41-G crew from its formation through the completion of its mission. He was even given access to the heart of the training the crew's sessions in the shuttle mision simulators. More than a chronical of different phases in the astronauts' learning process, Before Lift-off tells the story of the bonding of these men and women. It would be Captain Robert Crippen's fourth space flight, his second command in six months, and Sally Ride's second shuttle voyage. For rookies Davida Leestra, Jon McBride, and Kathy Sullivan, and for two payload specialists, the experience would mark an initiation into the most elite groups-those people who have ventured into space.

Genres: Space, Science, History

288 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1987

About the author

Henry Spotswood Fenimore (S. F.) Cooper Jr. is the author of eight books about NASA and space exploration, and was a longtime staff writer for the New Yorker. He lived in Cooperstown, New York.

He was a descendent of James Fenimore Cooper.

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe Before Lift-off is the only general interest book devoted to covering a single space shuttle mission, aside from those about the accident flights. This flight was STS-7--the seventh space shuttle mission--aboard Challenger in June 1983. This mission is interesting because it features two of the space shuttle program's star astronauts of the era, commander Robert Crippen and mission specialist Sally Ride. Ride was making her first spaceflight as the first American woman in space, which makes this book more noteworthy.

The mission was also the first for pilot Rick Hauck and mission specialist Norman Thagard, who both became veterans of multiple space shuttle missions.

There's a lot of focus on training and simulations, and in fact, this is one of the best space history books in that regard. You get a really good look at the crew's close working relationship with their trainers and simulation supervisors ('sim sups'). Crippen comes across as a no-nonsense commander--there's none of the horsing around that some later space shuttle crews engaged in--but it's clear he respects his crew and wants them well-trained and ready for any contingency.

Before Lift-off is a very good behind-the-scenes look at the preparation for a space shuttle mission. It's also a good time capsule of the 80s space shuttle era--simulating a space shuttle landing, for example, was very quaint by today's standards. This is, I think, Cooper's best book. If you want to learn how a space shuttle crew trained and got along with each other in the 80s era, this is the book to find.

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, which follows the crew of an October 1984 shuttle mission as they simulate various emergencies in advance of their flight. The book gave me some ideas that I hope to explore in my dissertation, which I hope will cover all of American human spaceflight.