Acknowledgments

As with the compilation of the earlier Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log 1961-2006 this work would not have been possible without the continued support and encourage­ment of a worldwide network of fellow researchers and authors over a period of many years including

• Australia: Cohn Burgess;

• Europe: Brian Harvey (Ireland), Bart Hendrickx (Belgium), and Bert Vis (The Netherlands);

• U. K.: Phil Clark, David Harland, Gordon Hooper, Dominic Phelan, Tony Quine, Andrew Salmon, George Spiteri, Andrew Wilson, and Robert Wood;

• U. S.A.: Michael Cassutt, John Charles, James Oberg, Curtis Peebles, and Asif Siddiqi.

We must not forget our fellow researchers, colleagues, and good friends Rex Hall, M. B.E. and Neville Kidger, who provided an unselfish wealth of information, support, suggestions, and cooperation over a 30 yr period. Some of their research is incorporated in this current volume and brings back fond memories of them.

U. K. space journalist Tim Furniss, our fellow author on the first edition of this work, deserves special thanks for his contributions to the reporting and documenta­tion of space exploration over the years. His earlier works Space Shuttle Log and Manned Spaceflight Log were the inspiration for the Praxis Manned Spaceflight Log, which included unpublished updates to his earlier works through 1990. Tim’s contributions to the earlier edition of this book were generous and key to its format and success. Unfortunately, whilst fully endorsing the new work, Tim was unable to devote as much attention as he would have wished but his encouragement and support are much appreciated.

The authors also wish to express their appreciation for the ongoing help and support of the various public affairs departments of NASA, ESA, the Canadian

Space Agency, the Japanese Space Agency JAXA, and the Russian Space Agency. Though a significant amount of information is placed on the various websites it still requires personal contact to refine details and to conduct personal research and study—truly “digging in the dust”—and for this we thank the above departments for their online assistance and efforts over the past 10-15 years or so.

The staff, publications, and archives of the British Interplanetary Society in London, especially those involved in its magazine Spaceflight, continue to be supportive of our research, for which we are grateful.

The online reference websites of Collect Space and Space Facts provide a valuable quick look source for the latest news and developments supporting the news releases from the various space agencies and are recommended for further research.

Once again we express our thanks to Colonel A1 Worden (Command Module Pilot for Apollo 15) for his generous and updated Foreword.

We thank the generous assistance of Brian Harvey for the photo of the first Chinese female in space—Liu Yang—taken at the 2012 IAF Congress in Naples, Italy, October 2012. We also appreciate the use of Mark Wade’s image of a display model of a Chinese Feitian EVA suit from his website Encyclopedia Astronautica.

All other images are via NASA, unless otherwise stated, via the AIS photo archive.

As always we appreciate the help, support, and understanding of our families during the time it took to compile and prepare this book. Special thanks to our wives Bel (who helped update all the tables) and Ruth for allowing us time to devote to the project when there were still pressing domestic projects and chores to complete. It is also worth mentioning the input of our mother Jean Shayler on this project. At the age of 83 Mom mastered the modern art of inputting data on a computer and transferred all the new log entries from handwritten notes.

Last but by no means least we appreciate the continued enthusiasm, support, encouragement, and professionalism of Clive Horwood of Praxis Books. Special mention should be made to Clive’s team at Praxis: Sue, Romy, and Harry, who over the years fully supported both Clive and his authors worldwide.

Thanks also to the staff of Springer-Verlag, New York and Germany, for pre and post-production support; to Neil Shuttlewood and staff at OPS Ltd. for their editing and typesetting skills; to Jim Wilkie for his efforts in preparing our original cover design to the finished article; and the book printers and binders for the end result. Without such a team effort from Praxis and Springer this series would not be as popular as it has become.