Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel

Winner of the 2003 Eugene M. Emme Award of the American Astronautical Society.

The only justifiable reason at this moment in human history to build space stations and put humans on them for long periods is to learn how to build and fly interplanetary spaceships. That is essentially what a space station is, a prototype interplanetary space station. Both the U.S. and the Russians understood this with their early space stations, and Leaving Earth tells that story. If we ever wish to send humans to Mars, we need to first spend some time in Earth orbit.

Now available as an ebook from all ebook vendors for $3.99 (before discount) at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.

A handful (now only 8) of autographed, hardback copies are still available, directly from the author, for $100, plus $5 shipping. To buy one, please send a $105 check, payable to Robert Zimmerman, to

Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

The printed version of this book is now out-of-print, so when these are gone, new copies will no longer be available. Get yours while you still can!

"Leaving Earth is one of the best and certainly the most comprehensive summary of our drive into space that I have ever read. It will be invaluable to future scholars because it will tell them how the next chapter of human history opened." -- Arthur C. Clarke