Off the Planet, Linenger's story, tells of those five months on Mir with the immediacy of one who experienced them. An astronaut since 1992, Linenger had spent nearly two years at the famed Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, learning Russian systems and procedures. With all training being conducted in Russian, Linenger had had to learn that language, as well as adapt to a foreign culture and bureaucracy. But his struggles to prepare for Mir were nothing compared to what would occur on the station. While aboard, the joint Russian-American crew faced not just the isolation of extended space travel, but just about every kind of mechanical disaster imaginable. Two weeks into the mission, they battled one of the most terrifying of potential space-travel disasters: an onboard fire, which almost cost all three cosmonauts their lives. Throughout the mission they confronted blackouts, chemical leaks, docking failures, other mechanical breakdowns, and a frightening, near-miss mid-space collision.

Despite hardships, Off the Planet is a story filled with inspiration. Between disasters were daily triumphs and major achievements. As the first American ever to perform a space walk outside a foreign spacecraft in a Russian spacesuit, Linenger was an ambassador for NASA and his country. He brings to life the joys and frustrations of space travel, as well as the humorous side of life in orbit. In frank, personable, and ultimately optimistic prose, he shows readers what its like to be an astronaut, trying to live and work with good humor, as well as important life lessons, like how to embrace challenges and change.