Publishing November 18th, 2025 | 392 pages | Hardcover and Paperback
“We go into space to see far.”
The Cold War’s half-century nuclear standoff left Jim Van Laak, a fighter pilot standing alert on the US’s northern frontline, aching for a vision of a better future with the nation’s great strategic rival, Russia. He did not know that two great misfortunes of his youth, a low draft number and a dangerous airplane accident, had already set him on a course to not only see such a vision but to help bring it to fruition.
In To See Far, Van Laak takes readers along on his improbable journey from being a shy but gifted youth with a burning desire to fly to running manned spaceflight operations for the whole planet.
Van Laak’s early brush with death made him determined to manage the dangers of flying by understanding its principles and machinery. In the wake of NASA’s 1986 Challenger disaster, he seized an opportunity to apply his insights to the problems of spaceflight. He soon found himself untangling the complex issues of Ronald Reagan’s envisioned Space Station Freedom.
When political changes redirected Freedom’s development into an international project with Russia as a major player, Van Laak was tasked with managing the risks of Russia’s participation. His later charge to lead the integration of the two nations’ programs put him at odds with people in both countries who would have preferred to see cooperation fail.
Van Laak’s efforts during the crises with American astronauts on Russia’s Mir space station developed the techniques and relationships he needed to lead spaceflight operation during the International Space Station’s critical, early construction. Managing its innumerable technical and human challenges brought him the long view of how rivals could work together.
In our time of seemingly intractable conflicts, To See Far brings a gentle, sensible vision that reaches beyond space enthusiasts to touch a deep cord in the human soul.
"Highly recommend! I found the book very hard to put down since it described so accurately what I remembered in my work at NASA’s Johnson Space Center during the same time.
To See Far is an unexpectedly candid account of the technical, cultural, and human challenges encountered by Jim Van Laak, NASA’s manager of operations during the assembly phase of the International Space Station (ISS).
Van Laak embraces the values of “tough but competent”* in his autobiographical account of the ISS program in its earliest phases. This was an era of big programs, big egos, and big changes in NASA, and it was ripe for internal conflict. The fact that NASA was forced to work with the Russians, heretofore archenemies during the Cold War, added yet another layer to NASA’s internal conflict.
I was captivated by this deeply personal and candid account. Van Laak brilliantly captures the technical complexity of the ISS as well as his own “thrill of victory” at achieving major milestones of the ISS assembly phase. He also openly reveals his own “agony of defeat” at setbacks, letdowns, and betrayals both within NASA and with Russian partners in the program. He takes time to identify and explain his personal heroes, the individuals on both sides of the ocean who worked tirelessly for the success of the ISS program. He also identifies the various key leaders who did not rise above parochial perspectives or personal egos and, through action or inaction, made the challenge of ISS assembly even greater.
This account is not all “peaches and cream,” but it does make the completion of the ISS assembly by an international partnership of former archenemies all the more remarkable, if not miraculous. And Jim Van Laak deserves credit for his visionary, tough, and competent leadership during this phase."
*Quote attributed to former NASA flight director, Gene Kranz, after the Apollo 1 tragedy that cost the lives of three astronauts: Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee.
—Jon Hall, NASA (retired), former project manager for Russian EVA hardware
“A captivating chronicle of US-Russian space cooperation.”
"To See Far is a definitive, firsthand account of the challenges, breakthroughs, and extraordinary teamwork that shaped US-Russian space cooperation from 1993 to the present. James Van Laak masterfully weaves together the tensions of the Cold War; the hard-won trust between NASA and Russian space engineers, managers, and crew members; and the operational triumphs that led to the construction and enduring success of the International Space Station. With rich storytelling and unparalleled insight, this book is an essential read for aerospace professionals, historians, policymakers, teachers, and students alike—offering a rare behind-the-scenes look at one of the greatest international engineering achievements in history."
—David M. Lengyel, PhD, NASA (retired)
"To See Far: Conflict and Cooperation on the Space Frontier tells the story of how the US and Russia overcame tremendous odds to become partners in the International Space Station. It is a story with great meaning to me because I was intimately involved with both the conflict of the Cold War and the cooperation we shared in space.
As a US Marine Corps F-4 Phantom pilot, I trained to fight the Soviet Union, and while serving in Vietnam, I knew that Russian MiG-21 pilots were training the North Vietnamese to fly against us. The idea that I would one day become friends with a Russian MiG-21 pilot would have seemed ludicrous. Yet, on March 14, 1995, I launched on a Russian Soyuz rocket to the Mir Space Station with Lt. Col. Volodya Dezhurov as my commander. Before becoming a cosmonaut, Volodya had been a MiG-21 pilot in the Russian Air Force.
It was a remarkable change. That I had become close to Volodya and flight engineer Gennady Strekalov was indisputable. There was no sense at any time that these men regarded me as anything other than a colleague and/or friend. It was as if there had never been a Cold War."
—Norm Thagard, first American astronaut to visit Russian space station Mir
"Too See Far recounts the tumultuous early years of the International Space Station, which I covered as CNN’s space correspondent. From my vantage point, the ISS partnership seemed fragile, but until I read Jim Van Laak’s candid insider’s account, I did not realize the extraordinary human and technical struggle to hold the program together. To See Far is an essential and eye-opening account of one of NASA’s great projects."
—Miles O’Brien, independent journalist and filmmaker
Jim Van Laak grew up in the old industrial city of Schenectady, New York. During the Apollo program of the 1960s, he became enthralled by the space program that dominated the world stage. Entranced by aviation, he got his pilot’s license at age seventeen and soon thereafter survived a mechanical failure induced accident. Inspired to learn what he could about these machines, he worked for an airplane mechanic while also attending college at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. A low draft number led him to join Air Force ROTC and later become a pilot and maintenance officer in the 49th Fighter Interceptor Squadron.
After leaving the air force, his deep knowledge of aircraft systems won him a role at NASA Headquarters, where he expanded his expertise to space shuttle systems. He then transferred to the Johnson Space Center to lead maintenance and logistics planning for Space Station Freedom. Having found a weakness in Freedom, he was tasked to ensure the International Space Station (ISS) program would not suffer the same vulnerability.
For ISS, he helped integrate the US and Russian space programs, creating a comprehensive risk management process to ensure success. Later, he became deputy director of the Shuttle-Mir program that sent American astronauts to Russia’s aging Mir space station. His response to critical events developed the expertise and respect needed to manage spaceflight operations during ISS’s critical start-up phase. He became the focus of conflicts between the US and Russian approaches to spaceflight, as well as between the existing Space Shuttle and the emerging space station programs. This allowed him to guide the programs through several critical tests of cooperation that could have destroyed the program.
Van Laak later became a senior manager at NASA’s Langley Research Center, served as the FAA’s deputy associate administrator for commercial space, and assisted in the launch and activation of the James Webb Space Telescope.