The Greatest Adventure

Colin Burgess Reaktion Books £25 z HB

Those fascinated with space exploration and the many human endeavours to leave Earth’s atmosphere never tire of hearing the stories and events of these missions told over again, discovering new, details that enrich the history further.

The Greatest Adventure covers the entire history of human space exploration from the early events that ignited the Space Race between the Soviets and US, all the way through to the International Space Station, the Soyuz rockets and Space Shuttles, to the present, with the prospect of space tourism and private companies playing greater roles. It concludes with a brief reflection on what the future holds.

Those well versed in human spaceflight will find it an enjoyable read, uncovering new details that the author has packed into the book. Equally, if you are new to this topic, the book provides a wonderful overview of space exploration.

One notable absence is a lack of character insights into the people behind these space-faring pursuits. At points, this can make it difficult to paint the more human story that has really driven the achievements of the past 60 years.

However, to include such accounts would probably have meant sacrificing such comprehensive coverage of events, and there are plenty of biographies and other literature referenced to jump off into.

The Greatest Adventure provides an excellent springboard from which to do so. It’s an all-round good read. HHHHH Nisha Beerjeraz-Hoyle is a space and astronomy writer