Space: The Human Story
Tim Peake Penguin Century £22 • HB
Write what you know, goes the adage. UK astronaut Tim Peake has done just that with this historical survey of astronauts as a class, spiced with insights from his own six years of training and 186 days in space. Peake's autobiography, Limitless, received some criticism for not reaching orbit until chapter 22 out of 25, but here we're up and away from the start.
At a time when the role of astronauts is evolving fast – with the Artemis programme due to return humans to the lunar surface, while commercial spaceflights widen opportunities to fly – Peake charts the ways their legendary ‘right stuff has already altered through previous history. Pioneer astronauts and cosmonauts were stoic solo voyagers.
96 BBC Sky at Night Magazine January 2024
Those who followed them were team players, flying to the Moon together or establishing early
