Dragonfly: NASA and the Crisis Aboard Mir
Encyclopedia
Dragonfly: NASA and the Crisis Aboard Mir (ISBN 0-88730-783-3) is a book by Bryan Burrough
about the Russia
n Mir
space station
and the cosmonauts and astronaut
s who served aboard. The story centres around astronaut Jerry Linenger and the events on the Shuttle and Mir Space Programme in 1997.
Bryan Burrough
Bryan Burrough is an American author and correspondent for Vanity Fair. He has written five books: Barbarians at the Gate , Vendetta: American Express and the Smearing of Edmond Safra , Dragonfly , Public Enemies and The Big Rich...
about the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Mir
Mir
Mir was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, at first by the Soviet Union and then by Russia. Assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996, Mir was the first modular space station and had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft, holding the record for the...
space station
Space station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
and the cosmonauts and astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
s who served aboard. The story centres around astronaut Jerry Linenger and the events on the Shuttle and Mir Space Programme in 1997.
Further reading
Many space topics are touched upon in the book, more information on these can be found in Wikipedia using the links below.- The Buran Spacecraft designed as an equivalent to the US Space Shuttle.
- The EnergiaEnergiaEnergia was a Soviet rocket that was designed by NPO Energia to serve as a heavy-lift expendable launch system as well as a booster for the Buran spacecraft. Control system main developer enterprise was the NPO "Electropribor"...
Rocket, designed to serve as an expendable launch system for the soviet space programme. - Baikonur CosmodromeBaikonur CosmodromeThe Baikonur Cosmodrome , also called Tyuratam, is the world's first and largest operational space launch facility. It is located in the desert steppe of Kazakhstan, about east of the Aral Sea, north of the Syr Darya river, near Tyuratam railway station, at 90 meters above sea level...
, the launch base in KazakhstanKazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
. - Ethylene glycolEthylene glycolEthylene glycol is an organic compound widely used as an automotive antifreeze and a precursor to polymers. In its pure form, it is an odorless, colorless, syrupy, sweet-tasting liquid...
, the anti-freeze which leaked on board Mir.
External links
- Houston, We Have a Problem. New York Times Review (free registration required to access article)
- NASA Photo Gallery for STS-84 mission