A Long Voyage to the Moon: The Life of Naval Aviator and Apollo 17 Astronaut Ron Evans (Outward Odyssey: A People's History of Spaceflight)

As command module pilot of __Apollo 17__, the last crewed flight to the moon, Ron Evans combined precision flying and painstaking geological observation with moments of delight and enthusiasm. On his way to the launchpad, he literally jumped for joy in his spacesuit. Emerging from the command module to conduct his crucial spacewalk, he exclaimed, "Hot diggity dog!" and waved a greeting to his family. As a patriotic American in charge of command module __America__, Evans was nicknamed "Captain America" by his fellow crew members. Born in 1933 in St. Francis, Kansas, Evans distinguished himself academically and athletically in school, earned degrees in electrical engineering and aeronautical engineering, and became a naval aviator and a combat flight instructor. He was one of the few astronauts who served in combat during the Vietnam War, flying more than a hundred missions off the deck of the USS __Ticonderoga__, the same aircraft carrier that would recover him and his fellow astronauts after the splashdown of __Apollo 17__. Evans's astronaut career spans the Apollo missions and beyond. He served on the support crews for __1__, __7__, and __11__ and on the __Apollo 14__ backup crew before being selected for __Apollo 17__ and flying on the final moon mission in 1972. He next trained with Soviet cosmonauts as backup command module pilot for the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission and carried out early work on the space shuttle program. Evans then left NASA to pursue a business career. He died suddenly in 1990 at the age of fifty-six. Dedication Epigraph List of Illustrations Foreword Preface Acknowledgments Prologue 1. Kansas Kid 2. Jayhawk 3. The Pilot and Miss Pollom 4. Wings 5. Fighting Falcon 6. Top Guns of Oriskany 7. Teachers and Pupils 8. Deke and Al 9. Screaming Eagle 10. Rolling Thunder 11. Per Ardua ad Astra 12. El Lago 13. Modules 14. “Go Fever” 15. Two Lives 16. Footprints in the Dust 17. Backups 18. The Rocky Road to Taurus-Littrow 19. Many a Slip 20. Captain America Sets Sail 21. Into the Shadow 22. The Big Picture 23. Spaceman 24. Return to Ticonderoga 25. End of an Era 26. Apollo-Soyuzand Beyond 27. The Most Alien World 28. Ad Astra Sources Index Biography of Apollo 17 astronaut Ron Evans (1933–1990).