Kip asked Phil Stamper:

Totally hooked at the concept of "reimagined 60s space race setting." What kinds of research did you do to pull a bit of that feeling into your book?

Phil Stamper Thanks so much for asking, Kip! I relied a lot on old LIFE magazines from that era—LIFE had exclusive rights to the astronauts, so they were always featured on covers and in long articles, and Google Books has the full archive, which I totally geeked out over. I've also read about every memoir from the various astronauts, scientists, etc. who were a part of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions, and though I loved the science and sense of adventure from the flights themselves, I kept finding myself drawn to stories of the astronaut families. How their lives were completely uprooted, and they suddenly found themselves on the cover of magazines, giving interviews, smiling for the cameras when they had no idea whether their husband/father would make it back home that day.

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