Sky Walking: An Astronaut's Memoir.

SKY WALKING: An Astronaut's Memoir THOMAS D. JONES

This is the book for anyone who has ever wondered how astronauts train, what happens off camera on space trips, or how exhausting it might be to take a space walk. Jargonfree and without bravado, Sky Walking is a candid look at astronaut training, flying shuttle missions, and building the international space station. An Air Force Academy graduate, a B-52 pilot, a Central Intelligence Agency scientist, and a holder of a doctorate in planetary sciences, the author was selected for astronaut training in 1990. He made the first of his four shuttle flights in 1994, eventually spending 52 days orbiting Earth and more than 19 hours outside the shuttle. Jones, who coauthored The Complete Idiot's Guide to NASA, rounds out this book by offering suggestions for NASA's focus after the shuttle program ends. The United States should continue human flights "even beyond the moon," he asserts. HarperCollins, 2006, 384 p., color photos, hardcover, $26.95.