Eight of America's early astronauts, selected to participate in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, died while employed by NASA. Three of the eight - Roger Chaffee, Gus Grissom and Ed White - are fairly well known, having died in a gruesome fire during a training exercise in the Apollo 1 command module on January 27, 1967. The other five are far less familiar. Four perished in jet crashes (Ted Freeman, Elliot See, Charlie Bassett and C.C. Williams) while one (Ed Givens) died in a car crash. Unfortunately, Burgess (Teacher in Space) and Doolan (coauthor, Mission to Planet Earth) tell their stories in turgid and repetitive prose, failing to dig beneath the surface and thus providing remarkably little insight into the men, their time or the agency for which they worked. Unlike virtually every other book dealing with the personalities of the astronauts, this one leads us to believe that all were single-minded saints, with no human foibles. Rounding out the book is a chapter written by Vis, a Dutch space analyst, detailing the lives and deaths of the eight Soviet cosmonauts who died between 1961 and 1971. This chapter is even weaker than the rest; little meaningful information is presented and there are factual conflicts with the American chapters. While the untimely deaths of good, talented men evoke pathos, these abbreviated biographies do not deepen understanding of them. 37 b&w photos.

__________
Восемь из первых американских астронавтов, отобранных для участия в программах "Меркурий", "Джемини" и "Аполлон", погибли, работая в НАСА. Трое из этих восьми астронавтов - Роджер Чаффи, Гас Гриссом и Эд Уайт - хорошо известны; они погибли в страшном пожаре, охвативший командный модуль корабля "Аполлон-1" во время тренировки 27 января 1967 года. Остальные пятеро менее известны. Четверо из них (Тед Фриман, Элиот Си, Чарльз Бэссет и С.С. Уильямс) погибли при крушении самолётов и ещё один (Эд Гивенс) - в автомобильной аварии. Эта книга рассказывает о них. Описывается также жизнь и смерть восьми советских космонавтов, погибших в 1961-1971 годах. Книга содержит 37 чёрно-белых фотографий.


Скриншоты