April 12, 2011 was the 50th Anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's pioneering journey into space. To commemorate this momentous achievement, Springer-Praxis has produced a mini-series of books that reveals how humanity's knowledge of flying, working, and living in space has grown in the last half century.

"Partners in Space" focuses on the early to late 1990s, a time in the post-Soviet era when relations between East and West steadily - though not without difficulty - thawed and the foundations of real harmony and genuine co-operation were laid for the first time with Shuttle-Mir and the International Space Station. This book explores the events which preceded that new ear, including the political demise of Space Station Freedom and the consequences of the fall of the Soviet Union on a once-proud human space program. It traces the history of "the Partnership" through the often traumatic times of Shuttle-Mir and closes on the eve of the launch of Zarya, the first component of today's International Space Station.

From the reviews:

“The description of launches, missions, experiments, and operations is comprehensive, and the biographical information presented on astronauts and their accomplishments as well as their personal lives is well done. This book will primarily benefit those interested in the nitty-gritty details of humans in space history. Summing Up: Recommended. Comprehensive space history collections, graduate students and above.” (A. M. Strauss, Choice, Vol. 51 (9), May, 2014)

Ben Evans is an accomplished and experienced space writer ideally qualified to chronicle the epic story of human space exploration. In addition to writing five books for Springer/Praxis, including the first book in this series: Escaping the Bonds of Earth: The Fifties and Sixties (2009), Foothold in the Heavens – The Seventies (2010), and the most recent At Home in Space (2011). He has published numerous space and astronomy related articles in such journals as Spaceflight, Countdown, and Astronomy Now.