Books

I am the co-author of two books:

"Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story," was authored with Skylab astronauts Owen Garriott and Joe Kerwin, and was published in 2008, by the University of Nebraska Press.

"Bold They Rise: The Space Shuttle Early Years, 1972-1986," was written with Heather R. Smith, and was published in 2014, also by UNP.

Click on either book cover to order, and use the e-mail icon above to contact me about book signings or talks.

Homesteading Space Reviews:

"A worthy recollection of an important but largely forgotten program" -- Roger Launius

"But the best of these books explain with unmatched immediacy what it is to go to space and to safely return." -- MIT Technology Review

"All I can recommend is that you don't walk, but run to the nearest book store or online book vendor."– Bart Leahy

Homesteading Space Citations:

April 17, 2024: "The Great Commercial Takeover of Low Earth Orbit" by David W. Brown on MIT Technology Review

November 16, 2023: "50 years ago, Skylab's accidental rebels put Mission Control on mute" by Richard Speed on The Register

July 28, 2023: "“Absolute 2001 Experience': Remembering Skylab’s Second Crew, 50 Years On" by Ben Evans on AmericaSpace

May 25, 2023: “We Can Fix Anything': Remembering Skylab’s Salvation, 50 Years On" by Ben Evans on AmericaSpace

May 22, 2023: "Are we 1, 2, and 3 or are we 2, 3, and 4?” by The Cosmosphere

May 19, 2023: "AB Chance and the Saving of Skylab” by The Cosmosphere

May 14, 2023: "A Few Telemetry Glitches': Remembering Skylab’s Hair-Raising Ride to Space, 50 Years On" by Ben Evans on AmericaSpace

July 29, 2022: "Preparing for Skylab: The separate 1972 experimental mission that never left the ground" by Richard Speed on The Register

May 18, 2022: "Opinion: Axiom Space’s First Mission Recalls Skylab Workflow Issues from Nearly 50 Years Ago" by Emily Carney on Medium

Feb 2022: "Doing the Organization's Work: Transcription for All Practical Governmental Purposes" by Alexander Holder et al, available via ResearchGate

Nov 20, 2021: "Dial “M” For Mutiny: The Greatest Spaceflight Controversy That Didn’t Happen" by Emily Carney on Medium

April 2, 2020: "Weekends in Space" by Jonathan O'Callaghan on Supercluster

June 15, 2020: "Was There Really a 'Mutiny' Aboard the Skylab Space Station?" from Astronomy

May 14, 2020: "Liftoff of America's First Space Station!" from Medium

June 29, 2019: "Cloudbusting: The End of Skylab, 40 Years Later" from National Space Society

June 23, 2019: "'Stronger Than Required': Remembering Skylab's End, 40 Years On" from AmericaSpace

June 6, 2019: "Getting Smart About Space: A Reading List" from Heroic Technical Writing

April 16, 2019: "Owen Garriott, 88, an Early Scientist-Astronaut, Is Dead" from The New York Times

March 6, 2019: "NASA's Secret Treasure" from Medium

Sept 25, 2018: "The weird history and terrifying future of mutiny in deep space" from Wired

Sept 17-19, 2018: "Outpost: A Wet-Lab Habitation Platform for LEO and Beyond," an AIAA paper by NanoRacks, LLC

May 13, 2018: "The Last Hurrah: Skylab’s 1978-1979 Unmanned Mission" from This Space Available

April 21, 2018: "The Bizarre Story Of The 'Mutiny' On Board A Space Station" from IFLScience

Aug 28, 2017: "Did 3 NASA Astronauts Really Hold a ‘Space Strike’ in 1973?" from Atlas Obscura

Feb 8, 2017: "Mutiny in Space: Why These Skylab Astronauts Never Flew Again" from
Smithsonian

Jan 11, 2016: "SKYLAB: AMERICA'S FIRST SPACE STATION" by Grant Schweikhardt

Jan 5, 2016: "'Skylab 4 Rang in the New Year with Mutiny in Orbit' - A Christmas Fairytale." from r/badhistory

Jan 3, 2016: "Space Myths Busted: No, There Wasn't A 'Mutiny' On Skylab" by Emily Carney at This Space Available

Jan 31, 2014: "Why Astronauts Were Banned From Drinking Wine in Outer Space" by Nicola Twilley at Gizmodo

Oct 12, 2013: "Backgrounding the 'Outward Odyssey' Series" by Colin Burgess at Spaceflight Insider

September 2013: "Space station repair: How it's done," by Thomas D. Jones for Aerospace American

May 12, 2013: "'Get Me Up There': The Plan to Save Skylab" by Ben Evans for AmericaSpace

Dec 8, 2011: "The sky is falling: how Skylab became an Australian icon" by Alice Gorman

Sept 5, 2010: "The SKYLAB III UFO Encounter - The Evidence and the Contradictions" from LunaCognita

Bold They Rise Reviews:

July 8, 2016: "...a great tribute to the multitude of people that helped make the program a reality" -- Jason Davis, Planetary Society

Fall 2014: "...a fascinating, richly informed, and deeply personal view of a feat without parallel in the human story. -- Chris Gamble, NASA History Office's News & Notes

July 27, 2014: "...a solid read which provides important information regarding NASA’s program of record for more than thirty years." -- Jason Rhian, Spaceflight Insider

April 2014: "...insightful quotes for anyone with an interest in this era." -- John Thatcher, Royal Aeronautical Society's AEROSPACE Magazine

Bold They Rise Citations:

April 18, 2021: "Weighing in on Space Shuttle Legacy" by Larry Grooms in AerotechNews

July 28, 2020: "A Flexible Lunar Architecture for Exploration (FLARE) supporting NASA’s Artemis Program" by Michael E. Evans and Lee D. Graham in Acta Astronautica

July 22, 2019: "Christopher Kraft Leaves Behind Powerful Legacy With Passing" by Steve Hammer for SpaceFlight Insider

May 2019: "Geopolitical Imaginaries of the Space Shuttle Mission Patches" by Andrew Stewart Maclaren. Info here.

Jan 6, 2018: "Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle astronaut John Young has died" by Andrew Liptak for The Verge

June 12, 2017: "Summer Reading: Indispensable Books on the History of the Space Shuttle" by Roger Launius

Other Book-Related Posts:

"The Best Books for a Graphic-Novel Exploration of Space" by David Hitt for Shepherd