This is the story of the people and events of Projects Mercury and Gemini, told through hundreds of unpublished and rare color and black-and-white photographs. Unlike other publications, which have illustrated the Space Race with well-known and easily accessible images, this history draws from the authors' private library of more than 125,000 high-resolution photos of the first two U.S. manned space programs from 1961 to 1966.Â
Collected over a lifetime from public and private sources--including NASA archives, fellow photo collectors, retired NASA and news photographers, and auction houses--the images document American space missions of the Cold War era more comprehensively than ever before. Devoting a chapter to each flight for the first time, the authors also include richly-detailed captions, providing new insight into one of America's greatest triumphs.
Foreword by Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Stafford, USAF (Ret.).
