"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 latest entry in the History of Human Space Exploration miniseries by Ben Evans continues with an in-depth look at the mid to late Nineties. Picking up where Tragedy and Triumph in Orbit: The Eighties and Early Nineties left off, the story commemorating the evolution of manned space exploration unfolds here in yet more detail. More than fifty years after Yuri Gagarin’s pioneering journey into space, Evans extends his comprehensive overview of how that momentous journey continued through the decades that followed.  Partnership in Space, the fifth book in the series, explores the final years in which the United States and the Soviet Union – which became the Commonwealth of Independent States in 1992 – pursued human space endeavors independently of each other.  The narrative follows the path taken by two old foes towards an unlikely and often controversial partnership. As the Shuttle program recovered from the loss of Challenger and pursued ever loftier goals, including the ambitious repair of the Hubble Space Telescope, Mir suffered from economic collapse and political neglect. Yet both Mir and the Shuttle formed a fertile ground upon which the seeds of what would become today's International Space Station were sown.  Both nations acutely needed the support of the other to achieve their goals. As political relations thawed between the two superpowers, a new relationship was forged. This cooperation saw Russians flying aboard the Shuttle and Americans flying aboard Mir and became a partnership that endures to this day. 

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)

Continues the History of the Human Space Exploration miniseries by Evans, which commemorates over 50 years of humans in space Provides complete coverage of the partnership between the Russian and American space shuttle program Explores the events which preceded the new era of the mid to late Nineties