Come Fly with Us NASA’s Payload Specialist Program
Come Fly with Us: NASA’s Payload Specialist Program by Melvin Croft is an illustrated edition published by U of Nebraska Press on February 1, 2019. This book presents the story of a unique group of space travelers known as payload specialists, who participated in various space shuttle missions from before the Challenger disaster to the Columbia tragedy in 2003. Unlike regular NASA astronauts, these individuals were selected for their diverse backgrounds and expertise, offering a distinctive perspective on human spaceflight.
Readers will find insights into the experiences of these payload specialists, who often flew single missions and were relatively unknown to the public. The narrative explores their reflections on living and working in space, as well as NASA’s challenges in integrating these varied personalities into the astronaut corps. The book also highlights significant missions, including those of notable figures such as Barbara Morgan and John Glenn, providing a comprehensive view of the evolution of space exploration during the 20th century. With 456 pages, this work delves into the history of space travel and the contributions of these specialized astronauts.
Official synopsis Publisher
Winner of the 2020 Space Hipsters Prize for Best Book in Astronomy, Space Exploration, or Space History
Come Fly with Us is the story of an elite group of space travelers who flew as members of many space shuttle crews from pre-Challenger days to Columbia in 2003. Not part of the regular NASA astronaut corps, these professionals known as “payload specialists” came from a wide variety of backgrounds and were chosen for an equally wide variety of scientific, political, and national security reasons. Melvin Croft and John Youskauskas focus on this special fraternity of spacefarers and their individual reflections on living and working in space. Relatively unknown to the public and often flying only single missions, these payload specialists give the reader an unusual perspective on the experience of human spaceflight. The authors also bring to light NASA’s struggle to integrate the wide-ranging personalities and professions of these men and women into the professional astronaut ranks.
While Come Fly with Us relates the experiences of the payload specialists up to and including the Challenger tragedy, the authors also detail the later high-profile flights of a select few, including Barbara Morgan, John Glenn (who returned to space at the age of seventy-seven), and Ilan Ramon of Israel aboard Columbia on its final, fatal flight, STS-107.
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