"On January 12, 1997, Jerry M. Linenger took off aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis, en route to an historic rendezvous with the Russian Space Station Mir. One of the few American astronauts to formally partner with Russian cosmonauts, he had been selected to spend five months aboard Mir, participating in a joint initiative to lay the groundwork for a new International Space Station. ". "But when he finally boarded Mir and took his first tour around the dark, ramshackle, incredibly cluttered space station, reminiscent of "six school buses all hooked together," Linenger knew he was in for a rough ride. " "A hair-raising tale of survival in the forbidding depths of space, Off the Planet tells, for the first time, the complete story of that illstarred mission. "--BOOK JACKET.