Space Travel & Exploration

The thrilling autobiography of the astronaut who inspired a generation The #1 bestselling author of Hello, is this planet Earth? and Ask an Astronaut 'I looked down below my feet and suddenly noticed Australia flashing by. The vertigo hit me then. My gloved hands gripped the hand...rail as tightly as I could. I had been on my spacewalk for over an hour. I had trained for this moment for years. But nothing can prepare you for that feeling, for the full realisation that you are no longer living on Earth. Staring into the inky blackness, I felt completely isolated from everything and everyone I had ever known. And yet at the same time I could not help feeling a strange sense of belonging.' In fascinating and personal detail, and based on exclusive diaries and audio recordings from his mission, Tim Peake takes readers closer than ever before to experience what life in space is really like: the sacrifice that astronauts make in being apart from their families, the sights, the smells, the fear, the exhilaration and the deep and abiding wonder of the view from space. Limitless is a book about the power of following our dreams - however unlikely they may seem - and of striving to reach our potential, even when we might not believe in it ourselves. Limitless also charts Peake's surprising road to becoming an astronaut, from a shy and unassuming boy from Chichester who had a passion for flight, to a young British Army officer, Apache helicopter pilot, flight instructor and test pilot who served around the world. Peake's extensive eighteen-year career in the army included the command of a platoon of soldiers in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, deployment in Bosnia, and flying multiple high-risk sorties as a test pilot, including operations in Afghanistan. After he was selected by the European Space agency from over 8000 candidates, Peake undertook six years of training to be an astronaut, tested physically, psychologically, emotionally and intellectually - from learning Russ
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'The sun is setting, signalling the end of my first orbital day. I catch a glimpse of the Milky Way; I recognize Cassiopeia. There is something so poignant about contemplating it from up here, from inside this metal box, this not particularly cutting-edge bundle of technology tha...t allows us to be here where no human being should ever be.' Five years ago, Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti spent two hundred days orbiting around Earth on the International Space Station. In this riveting memoir, she tells the story of her extraordinary journey: from gruelling years of training to daily life in space, from great events to small discoveries, from old rituals to jokes about the meaning of life. With honesty and warmth, Cristoforetti chronicles her journey to becoming an astronaut -- the many years spent travelling around the world, from Star City to Houston, always between languages and cultures, technology and nature. Gripping and inspiring, Diary of an Apprentice Astronaut is an enthralling story about what it takes to pursue your dreams.
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You're going to die. The Earth will, one day, be toast. So too, our Sun will eventually shine its last. But what's next? The End of Everything is a unique exploration of the destruction of the cosmos. Drawing on cutting edge technology and theory, as well as hot-off-the-presses r...esults from the most powerful telescopes and particle colliders, astrophysicist Katie Mack describes how small tweaks to our incomplete understanding of reality can result in starkly different futures. Our universe could collapse in upon itself, or rip itself apart, or even - in the next five minutes - succumb to an inescapable expanding bubble of doom. This fascinating, witty story of cosmic escapism examines a beautiful but unfamiliar physics landscape while sharing the excitement a leading astrophysicist feels when thinking about the universe and our place in it. Amid stellar explosions and bouncing universes, Mack shows that even though we puny humans have no chance of changing how it all ends, we can at least begin to understand it.
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One day our sun will grow...and grow...and grow...until it ends its life as a red giant 400x its current size. Wonder at facts like these, and much more, in the new illustrated guide to Space.

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Space & Space Exploration will inspire and educate anyone interested in finding out more about the Universe.