Patrick’s first book, Echoes Among the Stars: A Short History of the U.S. Space Program (ISBN 0-7656-0537-6) was published by M.E. Sharpe, Inc. (Armonk, New York/London, England), in January, 2000. A second hardcover printing was released in June, 2000, and a paperback edition was published in August, 2000. Buzz Aldrin’s Comments About Echoes Buzz Aldrin, the second human being to walk on the Moon and one of the most celebrated astronauts in history, described Echoes Among the Stars as follows: In “Echoes Among the Stars,” Patrick Walsh does a great job of telling the comprehensive story of the manned space program in a short scope. He covers the Russian side of the story alongside that of the U.S. in the race to the moon, and he clearly shows the escalating momentum and achievements of the space program playing out against a national canvas of the declining domestic situation of the 1960s. This is one of the best books on the space program. Altogether a fine effort.
 -- Col. “Buzz” Aldrin, Gemini 12, Apollo 11 Echoes in Libraries In addition to sales to the general public in bookstores and online via outlets such as Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com, Echoes has also been purchased by more than 250 U.S. libraries and several public, academic and educational libraries and institutions around the world, including the University of Toronto Engineering and Computer Science Library; the European Southern Observatory Library in Santiago, Chile; the library of the City University of Hong Kong; the Royal Astronomical Society (London); and the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Reviews Echoes has been favorably reviewed by the Journal of American History (June, 2001), Book News (May, 2001), Science Book and Fiction (November, 2000), CHOICE magazine (September, 2000), the Library Journal (February, 2000), and Kirkus Reviews (December, 1999). The book’s original website, now available at the URL www.EchoesAmongtheStars.com/OriginalSite, was favorably reviewed by About.com in September, 2000. KIRKUS REVIEWS, December 15, 1999
 NONFICTION, p. 1943
 Just as advertised, Walsh provides an overview of the American space program, from the V-2 rockets of Nazi Germany to John Glenn’s historic return to space in 1998.
 Instead of emphasizing technical detail or the history of unmanned missions, Walsh (Literature and Communications/Pace Univ.) focuses persuasively on the politics of space, especially in the early years. He reminds us how stunned we were in October of 1957, when the Soviet Union began the space race by launching Sputnik I. In those days, the Russians seemed formidable indeed. Much depended on our landing on the moon, and it wasn’t until then—12 years later—that American hegemony in space was clearly established. Walsh revisits the fears and triumphs of the Mercury and Gemini missions, from Gordon Cooper’s cool precision aboard Faith 7 to Gus Grissom’s near-drowning after the famous exploding bolts episode of Liberty Bell 7. Mission by mission, Walsh chronicles the Apollo program, from fly-arounds to moonwalks to the aborted, nearly fatal Apollo 13. Walsh’s history of the politics of the space race climaxes in his narrative of the Apollo-Soyuz missions that on the one hand seemed to bring a pause to the Cold War, and on the other, to rouse forces on both sides to one last fling at competition. After Apollo-Soyuz, the American program entered a long hiatus before at last settling into a groove of shuttle missions. Walsh spends little time on the shuttles, though he offers informative accounts of Sally Ride’s career, the Challenger tragedy, and John Glenn’s return to space. He does not speculate on uses of the new space station, future moon missions, or Mars exploration.
 Walsh is particularly skillful at contrasting the US and Soviet space programs. Otherwise, he is accurate, uncontroversial, and readable: a fine term paper source.
 LIBRARY JOURNAL, February 1, 2000
 Another survey history of the space program after no fewer than three recent similar well-received efforts in as many years (T.A. Heppenheimer’s Countdown, LJ 5/15/97; William Burrow’s This New Ocean, LJ 9/15/98; and Tom Crouch’s Aiming for the Stars, LJ 9/15/99)? Actually, Walsh’s slim volume does have real appeal owing to its narrow focus on the manned space flight angle. Walsh succinctly recounts the early successes of the Mercury and Gemini missions that paved the way for the Apollo moon landings as well as the Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz mission that marked the end of the first era of U.S. manned space flight. And he brings the story up to date with the return of John Glenn to orbit aboard the Shuttle. Despite the short shrift given the unmanned exploration of the planets, Walsh’s book is recommended for public libraries seeking a concise history of manned space flight. Reader Comments
 “A tantalizing in-depth analysis of the very real events of the space race, space exploration, the cosmonauts and astronauts, and other people who made it happen. . . . It’s illuminating and well-written . . . and as the international space station starts to become a reality, Walsh’s book will undoubtedly serve as a stepping stone from recent history into the events of the near future. He brings a complex and technical subject to life in a nonclinical manner that would be of interest to both educators and general audiences.”
 -- Alex Mendelsohn, Electronics Trade Press Editor, Kennebunk, Maine “Echoes Among the Stars succeeds very well as a short history of the space program . . . It is not “original scholarship,” but rather a popular treatment intended both for the general reading public and for undergraduates (or possibly well-prepared high school students). It reads very smoothly, and is especially successful in two ways: first, in its handling of technical//technological matters in an accessible way, and second, in its placing of the space program in the time period out of which it came and which it also reflected.”
 -- Lawson Bowling, Manhattanville College, Purchase, New York http://www.echoesamongthestars.com/OriginalSiteshapeimage_1_link_0
Echoes Among the Stars: The Book
Highlights:
• Buzz Aldrin called
  Echoes “one of the
  best books on the
  space program.”
 
• Two hardcover
  printings, followed
  by a paperback
  edition.
 
• Selected by more
  than 250 libraries
  throughout U.S.
  and around the
  world.
 
• Given an “A” by
  reads4teens.org,
  Carmel Clay Public
  Library, Carmel,
  Indiana, July, 2002.
 
• Cited as one of
  “Great Books on
  NASA” by Palm
  Beach County
  (Florida) Library
  System, 2006.
 
• Featured non-
  fiction selection in
  Morton Grove
  (Illinois) Public
  Library New Books
  Showcase, May,
  2000.
 
• Cited as a
  “Learning
  Resource” in
  National Honors
  Report article
  “Design Your Own
  Space Mission,”
  Spring, 2001.
 
• Textbook,
  American Studies
  courses at
  Manhattanville
  College, Purchase,
  NY, 2000.