Amazing Stories of the Space Age: True Tales of Nazis in Orbit, Soldiers on the Moon, Orphaned Martian Robots, and Other Fascinating Accounts from the Annals of Spaceflight

Mankind has accomplished some truly astonishing things in space. We’ve walked on the moon, explored the surface of Mars with rovers, and even photographed Pluto with spacecraft. Perhaps the only things more dazzling than what we’ve launched are the creations that remained on the cutting room floor.

Amazing Stories of the Space Age chronicles decades of aborted space missions, conceptual misfires, and fascinating almost-weres, ideas that run the gamut from mind-bending to utterly bizarre. I had no idea the Russians had developed their own space shuttle. (One that only flew once before being scrapped!)

Pyle has clearly done his homework, offering incredible detail on all of these projects, often accompanied by schematics, the backstage politics and problems that scuttled them, and their impact on later missions to come. It helps build a wonderfully informative flipside to the missions we know so much about.

At a time when the space program feels like a distant memory, Amazing Stories of the Space Age will hopefully reignite interest in the universe around us and our potential role in it.