Rocket Boys

(Paperback)

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Description

Previously published in paperback as October Sky.

Three years in the life of Homer Sonny Hickam, from the moment he sees the Sputnik satellite overhead in West Virginia to his successful launch of a prizewinning rocket.
In 1957, Coalwood, West Virginia, was a town the post-war boom never quite reached, and dominated by the black steel towers of the mine. For fourteen-year-old Homer Sonny Hickam there are only two routes in life: a college football scholarship, or a life underground. But from the moment the town turns out to watch the worlds first space satellite, Sputnik, as it passes overhead, Sonny and his friends embark on a mission of their own to form the Big Creek Missile Agency, and build a rocket.

Looking back after a distinguished career as a NASA engineer, Homer Hickam tells the warm, vivid story of youth and ambition that inspired the 1999 film October Sky. It is the tale of a group of teenage boys who dared to imagine a life beyond the confines of the coal pit, and went on to design, build and launch the rockets that would change their lives, and their town, forever.

Reviews

Gloriously inspiring Mail on Sunday

Moving, utterly absorbing and often explosively funny Esquire

Wonderful The Times

Author Bio

Homer Hickam is the bestselling and award-winning author of many books, including the #1 New York Times memoir Rocket Boys, which was adapted into the film October Sky.He is a Vietnam combat veteran and has also been a coal miner, scuba instructor, palaeontologist and NASA engineer.