Usborne teams up with space agencies

Usborne is publishing a new book about astronauts, in association with the UK and European space agencies.

The Usborne Official Astronaut’s Handbook, written by Louie Stowell and illustrated by Roger Simo, will be published next year with an introduction by British astronaut Tim Peake.

Peake is a former Apache helicopter pilot who is currently employed as an astronaut by the European Space Agency (ESA). He is due to man a flight into space in November 2015 in order to work on NASA’s International Space Station (ISS).

Usborne said the book would answer the big questions about space travel, from how toilets work on a spaceship to what astronauts do all day. It will also explore how spacesuits work, and which scientific experiments are carried out onboard the ISS.  

The book is aimed at readers aged nine and over, and will be released on 1st June 2015 in paperback and as an e-book (r.r.p. £6.99).

Usborne and the UK Space Agency are also creating an abridged, 16-page version of the book that will be given out free to at least 3,000 children in the UK, in the hope of encouraging them to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.