Noted author, poet, and NASA historian Bruce McCandless III (“Wonders All Around”) grew up in close proximity to the thundering roar of Apollo-era rockets and the Space Shuttle Program as the son of Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle astronaut Bruce McCandless II, who became the first person to conduct an untethered flight in space during a famous Feb. 7, 1984 spacewalk among his many NASA highlights.
Now McCandless III has teamed up with acclaimed space journalist and podcaster Emily Carney to offer an informal and informative new volume centered on the history of human spaceflight titled “Star Bound,” which arrives Jan. 1, 2025 from the University of Nebraska Press.
This comprehensive book’s full name, “Star Bound: A Beginner’s Guide to the American Space Program, from Goddard’s Rockets to Goldilocks Planets and Everything in Between,” is a bit of a mouthful, but it arrives as a 296-page encapsulation of our nation’s fascination with rockets as they evolved to provide lift for baby steps into outer space, moons missions, dreaming of Mars, and beyond.
We caught up with McCandless from his home in Nacogdoches, Texas to learn more about “Star Bound’s” genesis and hear tales of growing up the son of an astronaut.
“Well, I think the impetus for me was reading a book by Colin Burgess called ‘Soviets in Space,’ which was a sort of overview of the Soviet Space Program,” he tells Space.com. “I thought it was really well done. It was smart without being too technical and covered a lot of ground. I wondered if maybe that could be done with the American Space Program. I was surprised to find that there are some really big books, a couple of which are noteworthy but are now out-of-date. But there aren’t so many medium-sized general introductions to the American Space Program.
“There are also a lot of books about particular subjects, and you can go as deep as you want to into all manner of topics including hardware and personalities. We wanted to create something for educated folks who are nevertheless a little bit intimidated by the terminology associated with the program and some of the gatekeeping terminology and people who are so into the ‘inside baseball’ stuff that it becomes difficult to talk about in a general sense.”
McCandless divided up the labor with Carney to create a smooth synthesis of ideas.
“She’s a big proselytizer for the space program and very interested in getting more women involved, and not only in the programs about also as interested spectators and reporters. So we tried to be balanced in that respect. She’s got certain affinities and she’s a big ’70s Skylab fan and familiar with some of the early shuttle stuff.
“She was the co-host of a podcast called ‘Space and Things’ for three years and did 150 episodes with Dave Giles. They interviewed a lot of folks and the transcripts of those interviews we ended up using quite a bit of for our book. She talked to astronauts and engineers and mission control people, so that provided a lot of raw material.”
Growing up in the shadow of Houston’s Manned Spacecraft Center provided ample opportunities to become steeped in NASA operations with his father’s occupation.
“He was selected for the program when I was five years old,” McCandless recalls. “He was at Stanford doing a PhD at the time and once he was selected we moved from Palo Alto to a suburb of Houston, Texas. So I grew up around the entire Apollo program, then Skylab and the Shuttle. I wasn’t terribly interested in that sort of thing back then, but I absorbed a lot of space history and knowledge by osmosis listening to my dad talk and him discussing projects he was involved in.
“He never got a flight until I was off at graduate school in England, so I didn’t see his first launch. We grew up with this legacy that he’d never quite gotten the shot he deserved and that was one of the reasons I wrote my book, ‘Wonders All Around,’ back in 2021. He finally got everything he wanted and did really well for himself but we had this perception that he should have gotten one of those Apollo flights and that sort of thing.
“This new book is an informal, pop culture-referencing, sometimes a little bit snarky approach to space history and we’re hoping to rope in some younger folks too.”
“Star Bound” will be launched on Jan. 1, 2025. and it is available to pre-order from Amazon now.
Here’s the official detailed synopsis:
“‘Star Bound’ is a book for anyone who wants to learn about the American space program but isn’t sure where to start. First and foremost, it’s a history — short, sweet, and straightforward. From rocketry pioneer Robert Goddard’s primitive flight tests in 1926 through the creation of NASA, from our first steps on the moon to construction of the International Space Station and planning a trip to Mars, readers will meet the people and projects that have put the United States at the forefront of space exploration. Along the way, they’ll learn:
• How the United States beat the Soviets to the moon
• Why astronauts float in space (Hint: It’s not for lack of gravity!)
• How fast rockets have to go to stay in orbit around Earth
• How we can “look back in time” through a space telescope
“With technology evolving and humanity’s understanding of the universe expanding, we are entering an exciting period of space exploration. Authored by two veteran space writers with unique insights into the topic, ‘Star Bound’ offers up the story of Americans in space with a focus on the cultural and societal contexts of the country’s most important missions rather than engineering and technical minutiae.
“Vibrant, positive, and humorous, ‘Star Bound’ is packed with facts and stories for novice space fans. And sprinkled in with the history are lists of the greatest space songs, books, movies, and more — all designed to make space exploration accessible to even the casual reader.”