Over 100 Terrestrial Sites and Out of This World Stories
Space Age Adventures is now available at local bookstores, U. Nebraska Press, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon!
The book combines a trip guide to over 100 space-related sites across the U.S. with stunning images and a series of dramatic true stories that span the entire Space Age.
From the back cover: When people think about space travel, they usually look skyward. But much of spaceflight history happened down here on Earth. Space Age Adventures presents more than one hundred terrestrial sites across the United States related to space exploration where enthusiasts can have their own space age adventures.
Before astronauts walked on the Moon, they trained at locations you can visit today—from NASA space centers and telescope observatories to impact craters and atomic testing grounds. Inside vast museum hangars, you can walk beneath towering Saturn V rockets left over from the Apollo program, or peer inside American and Soviet capsules. Elsewhere, you can visit historic rocket pads, retired space shuttles, landed SpaceX boosters, and even watch scheduled launches.
Mike Bezemek brings the artifacts and spacecraft to life with interwoven stories that collectively span the entire space age. These stories offer a deeper understanding for the adventures behind the famous images. The combination of terrestrial sites and true stories makes this book the perfect guide for having your own adventures while rediscovering one of the most dramatic eras in human exploration.
The book is now available from local bookstores, U. Nebraska Press, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon! Learn more about the book and how to put a terrestrial spin on the concept of space travel in the following articles:
Seven Ways to Explore Space Without Leaving Earth
From astronaut training sites to working spaceports, these spots across the United States put a terrestrial spin on space travel. Read more at Smithsonian Magazine!
Photo: Aubrey Gemignani/NASA
More about the book: I began exploring space sites in recent years while conducting field research for Discovering the Outlaw Trail and Paddling the John Wesley Powell Route. Each of these three books combines true storytelling with a trip guide. In the case of Space Age Adventures, there’s a series of short true stories that span the space age, like a narrative nonfiction history of the era. There are nearly 90 dramatic large-format photos, like a coffee table book. And there are trip listings to over 100 space sites around the country, like a guidebook. The result is a single-volume companion for both lifelong and aspiring space enthusiasts to reconnect with the Space Age and to learn the dramatic stories behind the artifacts and mission numbers.
Along with travel and outdoor content, I share regular images from space sites and space history on my Instagram and Facebook feeds. I’ll also be posting space-related articles, stories, and updates here on my website.
A big thank you to one of the top publishers of spaceflight books in the U.S., University of Nebraska Press, to help bring Space Age travel sites and stories to life for new generations of readers and explorers!
Order the book at local bookstores, U. Nebraska Press, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon!