Book Review - Spaceman by Mike Massimino

We have always wondered, apart from astronauts, as to what it is like to zoom towards the sky faster than the speed of sound. Consider a scenario that you are strapped to a giant rocket which within minutes will accelerate from zero to more than 17,000 miles per hour and pierce the sky.

Consider another scenario that you are looking from moon towards the earth and can precisely see the line that separates day and night. Feel yourself in another situation in which you are standing in front of the Hubble telescope and are about to make an emergency repair, something which if not done correctly may ruin mankind’s chance to unlock the secrets of the universe.

Mike Massimino has been in all the above mentioned situations and numerous others like these. This is your chance to wear the astronaut suit of Massimino and experience first-hand the life of an astronaut.

The reference is being made to the book written by the great astronaut himself, ‘Spaceman’, which is sure to make you have a feel of micro-gravity and buoyancy of life.

Massimino dreamed to be on the moon ever since Neil Armstrong became the first man to do so. The journey to achieve his childhood dream was not an easy one. From a working class Long Island Family, Massimino worked his way up to complete his education from Columbia and MIT.

He flunked two times at the qualifying exams before he was selected for final round by NASA to become the astronaut. But, than the big bad news came, which turned his world upside down. He was told that he can never make the cut because of his poor eyesight.

This bad news did not stop him and joined the training for T-38 Air Force jets which prepared his body and soul for his journey to the cosmos. In the book Spaceman, Massimino describes about the beauty and surreal wonder of spacewalk. He also talks about losing friends because of the Columbia shuttle accident and how his enduring love developed for the Hubble telescope.

Massimino’s book Spaceman talks about teamwork which has the power to make anything possible and has stressed that one should never give up. The book lets us take a look in a world where a nerdiest science is in perfect amalgamation with thrilling adventure.

Book Author

Mike Massimino worked as astronaut at the National Aeronautical and Space Administration for nearly two decades starting from 1996 to 2014. He has been on two space missions, STS-109 in March 2002 aboard Space Shuttle Columbia and STS-125 in May 2009 aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis. He is seen in the movie Hubble IMAX 3D, has made an appearance in The Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Late Show with David Letterman, and CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory where he played himself. At present, he is living in New York City.