John Melady - Maple Leaf in Space. Canadas Astronauts

Canadians in Space

The Forever Frontier

John Melady

978-1-550029406

$27.99

On October 5, 1984, Marc Garneau became Canadas first astronaut when he rocketed into space from a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida. In doing so, Garneau became a national hero. Seven of his fellow citizens followed in his footsteps, many more than once. Julie Payette, a young mother and adventurer from Montreal was the first Canadian woman to visit the International Space Station. Chris Hadfield, a former fighter pilot from Ontario, was the first Canadian to do a spacewalk, while Saskatchewan-born Doctor Dave Williams performed surgery on test animals while his shuttle sped around the globe.

This book was written as a 25th anniversary tribute to these brave men and women who defied tremendous odds, risked their lives, and soared from earth on sheets of flame. By leaving the only planet known to be habitable, they became true explorers in an ever-expanding universe we will never completely know.

Pearsons Prize

John Melady

978-1- 550026115

$30.00

In the fall of 1956, the world was on the brink of war. Egyptian President Gamel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, and Britain, France, and Israel attacked him. Russia supported Nasser, and Soviet Premier Khrushchev threatened nuclear holocaust if the United States became militarily involved. Soon, the matter became a major problem for the United Nations.

Fortunately, because of the efforts of Lester Pearson, then Canadas minister of External Affairs, the crisis was defused. Pearson proposed a U.N. peacekeeping force be sent to Egypt to separate the warring factions there and keep the peace. Because his idea was adopted, Pearson helped save the world from war. For his outstanding statesmanship, Pearson won the Nobel Prize for Peace, the only Canadian ever to do so. This book, written to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the event, is about the Suez and about Pearsons work during a tension-filled time in the twentieth century.

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JOHN MELADY

DUNDURN PRESS

TORONTO

Copyright John Melady, 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Editor: Cheryl Hawley

Design: Jennifer Scott

Printer: Webcom

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Melady, John

Maple Leaf in space : Canadas astronauts / by John Melady.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Issued also in an electronic format.

ISBN 978-1-55488-752-1

1. Astronauts--Canada--Biography--Juvenile literature. 2. Outer space--Exploranon--Canada--History--Juvenile literature. I. Title.

TL789.8.C3M455 2011 j629.450092271 C2010-902689-6

1 2 3 4 5 15 14 13 12 11

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and Livres Canada Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, President

Printed and bound in Canada.

www.dundurn.com

This book is for Alberta McNairn

with my thanks for the suggestion you made almost 50 years ago

This book is about the brave men and women who are Canadas astronauts. There are relatively few of them, but their contribution in their profession has been great. They have thrilled us, impressed us, and made us proud. They are achievers, risk takers, and yes, pioneers as well. Not so many years ago, there were no astronauts, and only characters in science fiction went into space. Not so today.

If you are a young person reading this book, you will learn just how unique our astronauts are. They do, and have done, memorable things. Hopefully you will too if not in space, then in whatever occupation you choose. Our astronauts can be your personal role models, just as they have been for thousands of others.

By late afternoon, the spaceship Endeavour was ready to fly. It stood, tall and alone, dazzling and white, against the blue of the Florida sky. The fuel tanks were full, the final checks were done, the seven astronauts were strapped in and good to go. Over the loudspeakers, the countdown reached zero.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. But then, as the three powerful engines of the spaceship fired, the two solid rocket boosters roared to life, and in no time millions of litres of fuel became a white-hot firestorm. In those first milliseconds, the constraints that supported the shuttle were torn away, and it lurched above the gantry that had held it. As it did, the thousands of gallons of water that poured into the flame trench below the shuttle turned to steam that billowed in great white clouds over the launch pad and out to the sides. The water helped to lessen the shockwaves from the blastoff and insulated the pad from the extreme heat.

In the crew cockpit the astronauts felt the vibration and sensed the muffled roar of the machine that would hurl them to the heavens. Soon they would feel the crushing G-forces as the shuttle lurched higher and higher, tearing through the gravitational pull of the planet they call home.