Book review: Space is a celebration of those who boldly go where precious few have gone before
Written by astronaut Tim Peake, this marvellous account conveys the thrill of one of our species’ most noble endeavours
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, little boys and girls still dreamed about being astronauts. For most of us, it was not meant to be (Offaly never entered the space race).
For Englishman Tim Peake, on the other hand, it became a reality. Selected for the European Space Agency astronaut corps, Peake flew to the International Space Station in 2015, enjoying a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich once he docked.
Space: The Human Story, as its title suggests, deals with the people involved in history’s greatest adventure. We start off with Eugene Cernan, who spoke into the intercom as he lifted his foot off the lunar surface in 1972. “We leave as we came and God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.”
