Into the Black

On 12th April 1981 a revolutionary new spacecraft blasted off from Florida on her maiden flight. NASAs Space ShuttleColumbiawas the most advanced flying machine ever built the high watermark of post-war aviation development. A direct descendant of the record-breaking X-planes the likes of which Chuck Yeager had tested in the skies over the Mojave Desert,Columbiawas a winged rocket plane, the size of an airliner, capable of flying to space and back before being made ready to fly again. She was the worlds first real spaceship. On board were men with the Right Stuff. The Shuttles Commander, moonwalker John Young, was already a veteran of five spaceflights. Alongside him, Pilot Bob Crippen was making his first, but Crip, taken in by the space agency after the cancellation of a top secret military space station programme in 1969, had worked on the Shuttles development for a decade. Never before had a crew been so well prepared for their mission.

Yet less than an hour after Young and Crippens spectacular departure from the Cape it was clear that all was not well. Tiles designed to protectColumbiafrom the blowtorch burn of re-entry were missing from the heatshield. If the damage to their ship was too great the astronauts would be unable to return safely to earth. But neither they nor mission control possessed any way of knowing.

Instead, NASA turned to the National Reconnaissance Office, a spy agency hidden deep inside the Pentagon whose very existence was classified. To help, the NRO would attempt something that had never been done before. Success would require skill, pinpoint timing and luck

Drawing on brand new interviews with astronauts and engineers, archive material and newly declassified documents, Rowland White, bestselling author ofVulcan 607, has pieced together the dramatic untold story of the mission for the first time.Into the Blackis a thrilling race against time; a gripping high stakes cold-war story, and a celebration of a beyond the state-of-the-art machine that, hailed as one of the seven new wonders of the world, rekindled our passion for spaceflight.

*With a foreword by Astronaut Richard Truly*

Beautifully researched and written,Into the Blacktells the true, complete story of the Space Shuttle better than its ever been told before. Colonel Chris Hadfield, former Astronaut and Space Station Commander

Brilliantly revealed,Into the Blackis the finely tuned true story of the first flight of the Space ShuttleColumbia. Rowland White has magnificently laid bare the unknown dangers and unseen hazards of that first mission Once read, not forgotten. Clive Cussler

Rowland White is the author of three critically acclaimed works of aviation history:Vulcan 607,Phoenix SquadronandStorm Front. All three have beenSunday Timestop ten bestsellers. His writing has appeared in a variety of national magazines and newspapers including theGuardian,Daily MailandEsquiremagazine. Born and brought up in Cambridge, Rowland studied Modern History at Liverpool University. He has held a private pilots licence since 1998 and lives near Cambridge with his wife and three young children.