Yefgenil Yeremin is a flyer and he is a phantom.

In the Korean War he shoots down more American jets than any other pilot in history. He becomes the legendary ace dubbed “Ivan the Terrible.” But the Soviet Union’s involvement in Korea must be kept secret, so his name remains unknown, his victories uncelebrated.

Exiled to a remote Arctic base, he becomes a spectator to the new battlefield of Cold War rivalry: space. Yefgenil longs to do battle once more with America’s finest aviators, but he remains invisible, forgotten...until the day in 1964, when a man arrives from Moscow, from the Space Committee, in search of a volunteer. Five years later, Yefgenil Yeremin sets off on the greatest mission of all: his destination is the Moon.

Ascent is the story of how a single act can not only define the meaning of a man’s life, but also that of a nation and a species.