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First sentence of this astronaut memoir: I was naked, lying on my side on a table in the NASA Flight Medicine Clinic bathroom, probing at my rear end with the nozzle of an enema.
A no-holds-barred account of being an astronaut by a man who did three missions on the space shuttle. Much of it absolutely hilarious, some of it is sad (he knew the astronauts on Challenger, and was very close to Judith Resnik), some is angry (an analysis of the dysfunctional NASA culture that ended up literally killing people), and some is beautiful. If you like the first chapter, and I sure did, you should definitely read the book.
Mullane is distinctly politically incorrect, but unlike most people to whom that phrase can be applied, he actually examines what he means by that, why he’s like that, and what it felt like to have his views changed. He arrived at NASA as a sexist pig, then met the female astronauts and realized that they were just as competent as the men and in some cases more so. That story (“I was prejudiced until I met the people I was prejudiced against”) is common; what’s uncommon is the warts-and-all honesty about how that actually happened, what it felt like, and that some but not all of his views changed. (He evaluates women’s attractiveness a lot; if this will make you ragey, be warned.) The book felt very honest, which is one of the main things I look for in a memoir.
Some books by/about astronauts make wonder why the hell they even do it, beyond for the challenge and a desire for glory, when so much of it sounds so miserable and regimented and boring. Others gloss over the gross and frustrating aspects. Mullane’s is the first I read that glossed over nothing, but also made me understand the other reasons why they do it. His few but memorable descriptions of the awe and beauty of space are breathtaking.
Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut
A no-holds-barred account of being an astronaut by a man who did three missions on the space shuttle. Much of it absolutely hilarious, some of it is sad (he knew the astronauts on Challenger, and was very close to Judith Resnik), some is angry (an analysis of the dysfunctional NASA culture that ended up literally killing people), and some is beautiful. If you like the first chapter, and I sure did, you should definitely read the book.
Mullane is distinctly politically incorrect, but unlike most people to whom that phrase can be applied, he actually examines what he means by that, why he’s like that, and what it felt like to have his views changed. He arrived at NASA as a sexist pig, then met the female astronauts and realized that they were just as competent as the men and in some cases more so. That story (“I was prejudiced until I met the people I was prejudiced against”) is common; what’s uncommon is the warts-and-all honesty about how that actually happened, what it felt like, and that some but not all of his views changed. (He evaluates women’s attractiveness a lot; if this will make you ragey, be warned.) The book felt very honest, which is one of the main things I look for in a memoir.
Some books by/about astronauts make wonder why the hell they even do it, beyond for the challenge and a desire for glory, when so much of it sounds so miserable and regimented and boring. Others gloss over the gross and frustrating aspects. Mullane’s is the first I read that glossed over nothing, but also made me understand the other reasons why they do it. His few but memorable descriptions of the awe and beauty of space are breathtaking.
Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut
