I Want To Be a Space Pilot

Here we have a long out-of-print book from 1961 entitled I Want to Be a Space Pilot. The book was written by Carla Greene (pictures by Donna Cieslak) and was part of a series of books with the I Want To Be title. I am going to post the whole thing in its entirety. I love this children's book and really do believe it to be out-of-print. It's a little beat up and the binding is shot, but still worth checking out after the jump.

I WANT TO BE A SPACE PILOT

by Carla Greene

Kip, the son of a jet pilot, want to be a space pilot and go to the moon. But no pilot just blasts off for the moon. First, he learns about the earth with is air and gravity, and about the moon and outer space. He learns about the speed required to break away from the pull of the earth and about the special training and the tests that astronauts take to make sure they are fitted for the job of being space pilots.

Kip makes a good beginning but decided it will take him twenty years to learn all that he must know before he goes to the moon.

Kip's father was a jet pilot. Kip had flown in little planes and big planes. One day Kip's father took him for a ride in a jet plane.

"I want to be a space pilot when I grow up," said Kip. "I will take you to the moon." "You will have to take me in a rocket ship," said his father. "The moon is more than 200,000 miles away. It is in outer space"

"The earth is round," said Kip's father. "It spins around the sun." "Why don't we fall off?" asked Kip.

"Because a force called gravity pulls us to the earth," said Kip's father. "The earth has air around it. We cannot live without air."

The air we live in on earth presses on from all sides. A rocket ship must travel very fast to break away from the pull of the earth.

This makes the air press even harder on the space pilot. He wears a suit that protects him.

The pilot must be able to spin and tumble without getting dizzy. A space pilot takes tests in machines that spin him around. Some men cannot be space pilots.

Outer space is beyond the pull of the earth. Without this pull, things have no weight. They float around. A space pilot gets used to this floating feeling in a make-believe space rocket.

In a real rocket, a space pilot probably would be strapped to the seat. He would have to know how to work with his hands while strapped in a space suit.

A space pilot learns to eat strange foods. He must be able to swallow, even when he is upside down. The food may be like paste and come from tubes.

"Before I go to the moon," said Kip, "brave space pilots may have built a space station. It will be between the earth and the moon. I can stop there."

Kip learned that there is little gravity on the moon. On the moon, a man would need protection from the heat of the day and the cold of the night. He would have to take his air with him.

Kip learned about outer space and the moon and rocket ships."It will take me twenty years to learn to be a space pilot," said Kip. "I think it will," said his father. "But you have made a good start."