Voyager: Exploration, Space, and the Third Great Age of Discovery

"Blooms with such glorious rushes of exalted prose that I was dog- earing almost every page." --The New York Times Book Review

As debate over the future of NASA heats up, award-winning author Stephen J. Pyne presents America's greatest space expeditions as the latest chapter in a continuous saga of discovery that goes back centuries. Pyne's luminous narrative not only recounts the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 missions, launched in 1977 to explore the outer planets, but also fixes their place in Western civilization's urge to explore-an impulse that links NASA's scientists with Magellan, Columbus, Cook, Lewis and Clark, and other intrepid seekers through the ages. Pyne's eye-opening look at what he calls the third age of discovery "reminds readers of the rich cultural history that underlies humankind's exploration of the cosmos" (Science News).

Stephen J. Pyne is a professor of history at Arizona State University, a MacArthur Foundation Fellow, and winner of the 1995 Los Angeles Times Robert Kirsch Award for Arts and Letters. His book The Ice was named one of The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the Year. His eleven groundbreaking books include the five-volume Cycle of Fire. He lives in Glendale, Arizona.