Aiming for the Stars: The Dreamers and Doers of the Space Age - Pasta blanda

Subtitled 'The Dreamers and Doers of the Space Age', Crouch's fascinating volume is the kind of book we need today, as the first rush of exhilaration caused by space exploration is re-kindled after a period of stasis. Crouch aims at providing considerably more than a comprehensive guide to space programs of the past, present and future: he is also strong at conveying the personalities of the men and women behind the most astonishing endeavour of the human race - our faltering steps beyond the confines of this planet. Of course, that adventure is marked out in human lives as much as in the amazing moments we all remember (such as a man standing on the moon), and the author deals with all the dramas of the space race with equal intelligence. And he's also aware that many of us owe our enthusiasm for the subject to the galaxy-spanning imaginative leaps of science fiction books and films, treating these enthusiasms with just the required leavening of reality. If there is a caveat, it's the rather penny-plain black-and-white photos throughout, but Crouch is sufficiently acute a writer to conjure up this greatest of adventure with words alone. (Kirkus UK)