EARTH GAZERS

For thousands of years we have struggled to rise above the surface of the Earth and this book is about the long road to the capture of the most beautiful and influential photographs ever made of the whole earth as seen from space. 2018 marked the 50th anniversary of the moment three human beings escaped the pull of the Earth's gravitational field for the first time and saw the Earth as a sphere falling through the empty darkness of space. Even today, only 24 people have had that experience - the Apollo astronauts who went on the nine-manned missions to the Moon that took place between 1968 and 1972. The astronauts returned with photographic evidence that the Earth was beautiful, seemingly fragile, and different from any other heavenly body. The photographs known as Earthrise, taken during the first manned mission, and The Blue Marble, taken during the last mission, have become two of the most reproduced and influential images of all time, forcing us to think about our responsibility for this tiny oasis in space. It is the story of the often blemished visionaries who inspired that journey into space - Charles Lindbergh, Robert Goddard and Wernher Von Braun, and of the courageous pilots who were the first humans to escape the Earth's orbit. The Fourth Estate publisher Christopher Potter has taken a considered risk in retelling the tale of how we first came to see our planet from the outside and the result is a more personal viewpoint than many others on the subject. It is modern history intrinsically wrapped up with aeronautics, world wars, and the space race with fascinating details of what happened in America, Britain, Germany and the Soviet Union. Eminently readable, insightful prose. 456pp, plus marvellous colour plates and other illus. Pagemarker.