The Pre-Astronauts: Manned Ballooning on the Threshold of Space

by Craig Ryan

Back in the 1950s and early 1960s, before liquid-fuel rockets had launched us full-sail onto what John Kennedy would call the "new ocean," a small fraternity of daring, brilliant men made the first exploratory trips into the upper stratosphere to the edge of outer space in tiny capsules suspended beneath plastic balloons. They saw things no one had ever seen, and they experienced conditions no one was sure they could survive. This book tells the story of these brave and tenacious men as they labored on the cusp of a new age.
The author captures the drama of their spectacular achievements and those of many of the other space pioneers who made America's stratospheric balloon programs possible. Their now largely forgotten programs supplied many systems and processes adopted by NASA. Unfortunately, some of the valuable lessons they brought back from the edge of space were ignored - in at least one case, with disastrous consequences. Craig Ryan's argument is compelling for the inclusion of these men's achievements in the broad history of space exploration and astronautics. In their day, before Gagarin and Glenn and American flags on the Sea of Tranquillity, these pre-astronauts were the space program.

Genres: Space, Nonfiction, History

344 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1995

Reviews

[Mitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely extremely deep dive into the world of ballooning for aeromedical research, and political angles like one-upping the USSR. The author did a great job of not getting lost in the weeds in terms of technical details, instead focusing on the big picture.

[Riq Hoelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Signed by the author and kindly gifted by a friend. First impression is of the brilliant use of language. Not surprised to learn Craig was an English major. Second observation is that a lot of techniques are used to make the subject as interesting as possible. For example, the story is not told linearly, but jumping around, Pulp Fiction style.

The wartime and postwar period in America is interesting in terms of all the innovation that was going on, not just with the nuclear bombs, but in other areas as well, the astronauts, rockets, speed barriers and biological studies. What a great time to be a scientist or engineer.

It's interesting too to discover that while their 1960s space race is famous, the US and USSR were competing over it as early as 1933, in the form of seeing who could send a man to the highest altitude in a balloon, which sometimes resulted in death and disaster. The military were funding this competition Jas well. There was even a Russian aeronaut named Prokofiev.

There was a huge competition to see whose balloon could reach the highest altitude. There was even an attempt in Poland. Unfortunately, it was 1939 and the Nazi invasion caused a scrub of the launch. The project had secured 225K of precious US helium (which, unlike hydrogen, cannot be generated) for the attempt, approved by the Secretary of State. Unfortunately, to prevent it being seized by the Nazis, all of it was released to the atmosphere.

Interesting to realize that what is normally the freezing point for water becomes at 112K feet the boiling point.

Also interesting that parachute jumping was such a major sport in the Soviet Union during the 1930s. They even built high outdoor staircases and let little kids drop. I guess it's a relatively cheap form of entertainment. Gravity does most of the work and the parachutes are re-usable.

Readers should skip over chapter 7 as it completely deflates the excitement of chapter 6, and even worse, you might forget what 6 was all about. After 6, go right to 8 and proceed to 9. Only after 9 come back to 7.

It's disappointing that many of the lessons learned by the pre-astronauts were not followed by NASA. For example, a capsule's air should not be 100% oxygen because it makes fires far worse. NASA learned that the hard way. Another one that they have yet to learn is to supply shuttle astronauts with parachutes in case of problems of takeoff. Had they done this, the people in the Challenger disaster might have lived. It's a chilling thought that they were most likely still alive when they hit the water.

[Jeremy Anderberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

My wife has this wonderful ability to buy me obscure-ish history books that nobody has really heard of, but are absolutely a joy to read. A few years back it was Climb to Conquer, about the 10th Mountain Division — the ski troops — that served in WWII. Superb book.

This year for my birthday she somehow snagged a used copy of The Pre-Astronauts that . . . wait for it . . . was signed by Joe Kittinger, the most famed balloonist of them all! This fact wasn't included in the description of the book, and even though the signing is made out to Dennis, it's amazing nonetheless. (It's also signed by Eli Beeding, who's decidedly less famous.)

Before humans went to space, we went to the stratosphere. And in balloons no less. It's wild really — these gas-filled teardrops ascending up to 70,000 . . . 80,000 . . . 100,000(!) feet up in a tiny gondola.

And then, for a variety of scientific and not-so-scientific reasons, sometimes those courageous aviators jumped out.

Joe Kittinger was the most famous of the jumpers, and until Felix's 2012 jump, held the record for highest skydive when he jumped from 102,000 feet up — on the very edge of space.

These balloonists were the first to witness the curvature of the earth. The first to describe the surreal beauty of the upper reaches of the atmosphere. The first to test new types of parachutes and other technologies which made these epic feats possible in the first place.

The characters in The Pre-Astronauts lack the name recognition of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and John Glenn, and yet were some of the bravest men to ever take to the skies.

This was such a wonderful book, particularly for a minor aviation nerd like me. This year, the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, it's especially appropriate. John Paul Stapp, David Simons, Joe Kittinger — these heroes set the stage and in many regards made possible the world-changing feats of those Space Age heroes.

I've already ordered another of Craig's books: Magnificent Failure.

[kesseljunkie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot recommend it highly enough. I will likely re-read it; thoroughly researched and compellingly written, I learned about an aspect of exploration about which I knew nothing and which history lessons overlook. Is it because we wanted more glory and a cleaner narrative for the space race? Possibly - when a government is involved in anything, it’s a contest of bureaucratic egos and the quest for prestige and power.

It doesn’t matter if the little authoritarian troll-like desk jockey heading up the agency for decades is wrong or misguided; they desire to be the center of attention. It’s even more true in the TV era. The real work and knowledge doesn’t exist at the head of agencies but in the field. But I digress.

Life got in the way and so I had to take over a month off from reading anything at all. It frustrates me because this book is terrific and it burned at me that I couldn’t find the moments to sink back into it till recently.

Get a copy and read it. It’s terrific.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing retelling of a little-known chapter in America's space program.

[Rudy Chacon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of Americans pushing the limits of what the human body can take. Easy and interesting read, highly recommend.