Colin Burgess (born March 1947) is an Australian author and historian, specializing in space flight and military history. He is a former customer service manager for

Qantas Qantas ( ), formally Qantas Airways Limited, is the flag carrier of Australia, and the largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations in Australia and List of largest airlines in Oceania, Oceania. A foundi ...

Airways, and a regular contributor to the collectSPACE online community. He lives in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. Two of Burgess's co-authored 2007 books, '' Into That Silent Sea: Trailblazers of the Space Era, 1961–1965'' and '' In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965–1969'' were named as finalists for the 2007 Eugene M. Emme Award given by the American Astronautical Society. ''In the Shadow of the Moon'' was also named as "2009 Outstanding Academic Title" by '' Choice Magazine''.

Bibliography

* ''Aircraft'', 1985 * ''Pioneers of Flight'', 1988 *''Prisoners of War'', with Hugh Clarke and

Russell Braddon Russell Reading Braddon (25 January 1921 – 20 March 1995) was an Australian writer of novels, biographies and TV scripts. His chronicle of his four years as a prisoner of war, '' The Naked Island'', sold more than a million copies. Braddon ...

, 1988 * ''Laughter in the Air: Tales from the

Era'', with Max Harris, 1988 * ''More Laughter in the Air: Tales from the Qantas Era'', 1992 * ''Barbed Wire and Bamboo: Australian POW Stories'', with Hugh Clarke, 1993 * ''Freedom or Death : Australia's Greatest Escape Stories from Two World Wars'', 1994 * ''Destination

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (Old Reich) territori ...

'', 1995. Revised and expanded edition published 2022 * ''The Diggers of

Colditz Colditz () is a small town in the district of Leipzig (district), Leipzig, in Saxony, Germany. It is best known for Colditz Castle, the site of the Oflag IV-C prisoner-of-war camp, POW camp for officers in World War II. Geography Colditz is situa ...

: the classic Australian POW escape story now completely revised and expanded'', with Jack Champ, 1997 and 2019 * ''Australia's Dambusters: The Men and Missions of

617 Squadron Number 617 Squadron is a Royal Air Force aircraft squadron commonly known as The Dambusters for its actions during Operation Chastise against German dams during the World War II, Second World War, originally based at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire ...

'', 2003, re-released in 2021 * ''Bush Parker: An Australian Battle of Britain Pilot in Colditz'', 2007, * ''Space, the New Frontier'', 1987 * ''Oceans to Orbit: The Story of Australia's First Man in Space, Paul Scully-Power'', 1995 * ''Australia's Astronauts: Three Men and a Spaceflight Dream'', 1999 * ''Teacher In Space: Christa McAuliffe and the Challenger Legacy'', 2000, revised edition 2020 * ''Fallen Astronauts: Heroes Who Died Reaching for the Moon'', with Kate Doolan, 2003. Revised expanded edition, 2016 * ''

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

's Scientist-Astronauts'', with David Shayler, 2006 * ''Animals In Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle'', with Chris Dubbs, 2007 * '' Into That Silent Sea: Trailblazers of the Space Era, 1961–1965'', with Francis French, 2007 * '' In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965–1969'', with Francis French, 2007 * ''Astronomica'', Ed. Fred Watson, 2007 (contributor) * ''The First Soviet

Cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

Team: Their Lives and Legacies'', with Rex Hall, 2009 * ''Australia's Astronauts: Countdown to a Spaceflight Dream'', 2009 * ''Footprints in the Dust: The Epic Voyages of

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

, 1969–1975'', 2010 * ''How Wickie Saved the World'', 2010 * ''Selecting the

Mercury Seven The Mercury Seven were the group of seven astronauts selected to fly spacecraft for Project Mercury. They are also referred to as the Original Seven and Astronaut Group 1. Their names were publicly announced by NASA on April 9, 1959: Scott ...

: The Search for America's First Astronauts'', 2011"Selecting the Mercury Seven" Official Publisher Site
/ref> * ''Moon Bound: Choosing and Training the Lunar Astronauts'', 2012 * '' Freedom 7: The Historic Flight of Alan B. Shepard, Jr.'', 2014 * '' Liberty Bell 7: The Suborbital Mercury Flight of Virgil I. Grissom'', 2014 * ''

Friendship 7 Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) was the first crewed American orbital spaceflight, which took place on February 20, 1962. Piloted by astronaut John Glenn and operated by NASA as part of Project Mercury, it was the fifth human spaceflight, preceded by Sov ...

: The Epic Orbital Flight of John H. Glenn, Jr.'', 2015 * '' Aurora 7: The Mercury Space Flight of M. Scott Carpenter'', 2015 * ''

Interkosmos Interkosmos () was a Soviet space program, designed to help the Soviet Union's allies with Human spaceflight, crewed and Uncrewed spacecraft, uncrewed space missions. The program was formed in April 1967 in Moscow. All members of the program fr ...

: The Eastern Bloc's Early Space Program'', 2015 * '' Sigma 7: The Six Mercury Orbits of Walter M. Schirra, Jr.'', 2016 * '' Faith 7: L. Gordon Cooper, Jr. and the Final Mercury Mission'', 2016 * ''The Last of NASA's Original Pilot Astronauts: Expanding the Space Frontier in the Late Sixties'', with David J. Shayler, 2017 * ''Shattered Dreams: The Lost or Canceled Space Missions'', 2019 * ''NASA's First Space Shuttle Astronaut Selection: Redefining the Right Stuff'', 2020 * ''Australia's Greatest Escapes: Gripping Tales of Wartime Bravery'', 2020 * ''The Greatest Adventure: A History of Human Space Exploration'', 2021 * ''Soviets in Space: Russia's Cosmonauts and the Space Frontier'', 2022 * ''Sisters in Captivity: Sister Betty Jeffrey OAM and the courageous story of Australian Army nurses in Sumatra, 1942-1945, 2023 * ''Australia's Aviation Heroes: True Stories From Our Airmen At War'', 2025

References

External links

''Into That Silent Sea'' Official Publisher Site''In The Shadow Of The Moon'' Official Publisher Site2007 AAS Emme Award finalist announcements
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burgess, Colin 1947 births Australian non-fiction writers Living people