Mounting pressure in the early 1960s from the National Academy of
Sciences (NAS) led to NASA's conclusion that flying scientifically
trained crewmembers would generate greater returns from each mission. In
selecting the first group of scientist-astronauts, NASA had one firm
requirement; any person accepted into the programme would have to
qualify as a military jet pilot.
This book provides unique access to the story of how scientists were
accepted into the American Space Programme, and reveals how, after four
difficult decades, the role of the heroic test pilot astronaut has been
replaced by men and women who are science orientated space explorers.