Spaceman (Adapted for Young Readers): The True Story of a Young Boy’s Journey to Becoming an Astronaut

Product Description

An astronaut who completed spacewalks on two Hubble missions tells his inspiring story in this middle grade adaptation of his bestselling adult memoir, Spaceman: An Astronaut’s Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe. Fans of The Right Stuff and Apollo 13 will be thrilled by this astronaut’s real life adventure.

From the time he was seven-years-old and saw Apollo 11 land on the moon, Mike Massimino dreamed of becoming an astronaut. Long Island is a long way from space. Kids like him, growing up in working-class families, seldom left the neighborhood. But with the encouragement of teachers and mentors, Mike ventured down on a path that took him to Columbia University and to MIT. It wasn’t easy. There were academic setbacks and disappointments aplenty–and NASA turned him down three times. Still, Mike never gave up. He rose to each challenge and forged ahead, inching closer to realizing his boyhood dream. His love of science and space, along with his indomitable spirit and sense of teamwork eventually got him assigned to two missions to fix the Hubble Space Telescope–as a spacewalker.

Spaceman takes readers on Mike’s unlikely ride from Earth to space, showing the breathtaking wonder of science and technology along the way.

“Mike Massimino is a spaceman through and through. In this edition for young people, he tells us how hard work can take you out of this world. He believes in teamwork, and he never gives up. Prepare to be inspired.” –BILL NYE, SCIENCE GUY and CEO, THE PLANETARY SOCIETY

Review

”
Mike Massimino is a spaceman through and through. In this edition for young people, he tells us how hard work can take you out of this world.
He believes in teamwork, and he never gives up. Prepare to be inspired.” –BILL NYE, Science Guy and CEO, The Planetary Society

“A
grand, inspiring, sometimes hilarious ride.” –
Kirkus Reviews

“From his childhood days peering up at the sky to his struggles to find his life’s calling,
Massimino’s story will inspire many kids.” –
School Library Journal
“An inspirational guide
for young people on their own life journeys.” –
Booklist

About the Author

MIKE MASSIMINO served as a NASA astronaut from 1996 to 2014. A veteran of two space flights to the Hubble Space Telescope, Mike and his crews set team records for spacewalking time, and he became the first person to tweet from space. He has played himself on the CBS sitcom
The Big Bang Theory, was featured in the IMAX film
Hubble 3D, and has appeared frequently in television documentaries and on late-night talk shows and news programs. A graduate of Columbia University and MIT, Mike lives in New York City, where he is a professor at Columbia and an advisor at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. Visit him online at MikeMassimino.com and follow @Astro_Mike on Twitter and @astromikemassimino on Instagram.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

P R O L O G U E

 
A Science Fiction Monster
 
            On March 1, 2002, I left Earth for the first time. I got on board the space shuttle 
Columbia and I blasted 350 miles into orbit. It was a big day, a day I’d been dreaming about since I was seven years old, a day I’d been training for nonstop since NASA had accepted me into the astronaut program six years earlier. But even with all that waiting and planning, I still wasn’t ready. Nothing you do on this planet can ever truly prepare you for what it means to leave it.
            Our flight, STS-109, was a servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope. We were a crew of seven, five veterans and two rookies, me and my buddy Duane Carey, an Air Force guy. We called him Digger. Every astronaut gets an astronaut nickname. Because of my name and because I’m six feet three inches, everybody called me Mass.
            Ours was going to be a night launch. At three in the morning, we walked out of crew quarters at Kennedy Space Center to where the astro van was waiting to take us ou