Books by Colin Burgess

A thrilling, beautifully illustrated account of human space exploration, from the space race of the 1950s and '60s to the present day.

Christa McAuliffe's name is entrenched in American history as the teacher who died when the Challenger exploded in January 1986. This biography in words and pictures explores and celebrates Christa's life and legacy and suggests that her goals of involving and educating children are being fulfilled.

Many people are aware of the Apollo launch pad disaster in which three men lost their lives, but there were five more fallen astronauts. This book tells their stories also: Ted Freeman, C C Williams, the "Gemini Twins," Charlie Bassett and Elliot See.

Delves into the personal stories and recollections of men and women who were in line to fly a specific or future space mission but lost that opportunity due to personal reasons, mission cancellations, or even tragedies. While some of the subjects are familiar names in spaceflight history, the accounts of others are told here for the first time.

This book celebrates the final spaceflight in the Mercury series, flown by NASA astronaut Gordon Cooper, who led an adventurous life in the cockpit of airplanes and spacecraft alike, and on his Mercury mission he became the last American ever to rocket into space alone.

Near the end of the Apollo 15 mission, David Scott and fellow moonwalker James Irwin placed on the lunar soil a small tin figurine called "The Fallen Astronaut". By telling the stories of the sixteen astronauts and cosmonauts who died in the quest to reach the moon between 1962 and 1972, this book conveys the human cost of the space race.

This book focuses on the Interkosmos program, which was formed in 1967, marking a fundamentally new era of cooperation by socialist countries, led by the Soviet Union, in the study and exploration of space.

Colin Burgess offers a comprehensive yet personal look at the 1962 orbital mission of Wally Schirra aboard the spacecraft Sigma 7, the first book about this popular pioneering astronaut which explores his entire life and accomplishments.

All of the candidates were among the nation's elite pilots involved in testing new supersonic aircraft capabilities. some were test pilots on top secret and sophisticated aviation projects, while others were fleet admirals, prisoners of war, and proposed pilots for spaceflight programs such as the Dyna-Soar (X-20).

The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team will relate who these men were and offer far more extensive background stories, in addition to those of the more familiar names of early Soviet space explorers from that group.

This book is as a detailed, but highly readable and balanced account of the history of animal space flights carried out by all nations, but principally the United States and the Soviet Union.