The Astronaut Maker How One Mysterious Engineer Ran Human Spaceflight for a Generation

 One of the most elusive and controversial figures in NASA’s history, George W. S. Abbey was said to be secretive, despotic, a Space Age Machiavelli. Yet Abbey had more influence on human spaceflight than almost anyone in history. His story has never been told—until now. The Astronaut Maker takes readers inside NASA to learn the real story of how Abbey rose to power, from young pilot and wannabe astronaut to engineer, bureaucrat, and finally director of the Johnson Space Center. During a thirty-seven-year career, mostly out of the spotlight, he oversaw the selection of every astronaut class from 1978 to 1987, deciding who got to fly and when. He was with the Apollo 1 astronauts the night before the fatal fire in January 1967. He was in mission control the night of the Apollo 13 accident and organized the recovery effort. Abbey also led NASA’s recruitment of women and minorities as space shuttle astronauts and was responsible for hiring Sally Ride. The Astronaut Maker is the ultimate insider’s account of ambition and power politics at NASA.

Michael Cassutt is the coauthor of Deke!, We Have Capture, and three editions of Who’s Who in Space (1987, 1993, 1999), as well as five space-themed novels and 30 short stories published in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction and elsewhere.