"Based on numerous interviews, Gallentine delivers a rich variety of stories involving the men and women, American and Russian, responsible for such groundbreaking endeavors as the Mars Viking missions of the 1970s and the Soviet Venera flights to Venus in the 1980s. . . . Their legacy is our better understanding of our own planet and our place in the cosmos."-<i>Lunar and Planetary Information Bulletin</i> “In this lively and memorable journey, Jay Gallentine captures the amazing people behind history’s robotic explorers, who journeyed where no machines had gone before.”-Andrew Chaikin, author of <i>A Man on the Moon</i> and <i>A Passion for Mars</i> “Jay Gallentine has written a truly engaging account of lunar and planetary exploration in the halcyon days of the 1970s and 1980s, when scientists and engineers were boldly pushing into the unknown. . . . [He brings] to life the struggles, triumphs, and disappointments of the first great era of deep space exploration. Highly recommended.”-Asif Siddiqi, author of <i>The Red Rockets’ Glare: Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination, 1857–1957</i>   “<i>Infinity Beckoned </i>is a stirring account of [the robotic race to the moon, Venus, and Mars] and its bobs and weaves over more than thirty years as both nations expanded knowledge of the solar system, expended resources for science, and competed for stature on the world stage.”-Roger Launius, associate director for collections and curatorial affairs at the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution  “With <i>Infinity Beckoned</i> you’ll read a big piece of history you never even knew was there.”-Jeffrey Kluger, coauthor of <i>Apollo 13</i>