A man on the moon : the voyages of the apollo astronauts

It picks up where The Right Stuff left off. [Stu Roosa, Apollo 14, back cover]***In a 2007 afterword, Chaikin discusses how a lack of progress in human spaceflight has forced exploration-hungry observers to turn their interest to robotic probes. To be certain, the achievements of these remote-controlled explorers have been impressive and exciting to watch. As Chaikin wrote, two rovers were exploring Mars, Cassini had arrived at Saturn, and New Horizons was just beginning its journey to Pluto. But Chaikin is clear that only human spaceflight can inspire people and ignite their passions in the way Apollo did. [Apollo Review, the night of July 20, 1969, our world changed forever: two Americans, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, walked on the moon. After the horror of the Kennedy and King assassinations, amid the deepening quagmire of Vietnam, the moon landing brought the sixties to a triumphant end. But the upheavals of that decade have somehow eclipsed this “one giant leap” and the even bolder explorations that followed. Now Andrew Chaikin tells the story of the Apollo missions as never before: through the eyes of the astronauts who made those heroic voyages.A decade in the making, A Man on the Moon is based on hundreds of hours of in-depth interviews with each of the twenty-four moon voyagers, as well as those who contributed unprecedented brain power, training, and teamwork on earth. With breathtaking immediacy, Chaikin conveys every aspect of the Apollo missions, from the rush of liftoff atop a Saturn V rocket, to the heart-stopping touchdown on the moon, to, the final hurdle of reentry. ...  For the 25th anniversary of the first moon landing, a winning and detailed account of the Apollo astronauts, a dozen of whom were the first human beings to walk on the face of the moon. The strength of the book lies in Chaikin's exhaustive research, including interviews with all 24 Apollo astronauts. Chaikin, an editor of Sky and Telescope, draws on the wealth of material from NASA's files--including recently declassified transcripts from the on-board voice recorders, which give candid glimpses of the astronauts' thoughts not intended for outside ears (not even Mission Control's). As a result, the reader gets an in-depth portrait of the program, which the book sets clearly in its time, with glimpses at the Vietnam War and social unrest at home that were eventually to overshadow its brilliant accomplishments. [[Kirkus Review][1], excerpt] *** I've read this book numerous times since the first hardcover edition in 1994, and I never fail to learn something new. While there on many books on Apollo that a serious enthusiast should read, this is easily the SINGLE best book yet written. If you only ever read one book about the moon landings, then this should be it. Chaikin is the only person to ever interview all 12 moonwalkers and get their personal feelings about everything from individual astronaut selection, crew selection, training, peer relations and best of all -- orbiting and walking on the moon. This is not a technical or scientific history, but an account of how the astronauts FELT about their entire Apollo experiences. You can easily "walk in their shoes" and "see through their eyes" with this book. He writes in a way all persons can understand and simplifies the engineering and scientific aspects so you can understand what the astronauts were dealing with. Not only does he avoid getting bogged down in technical speak, but actually makes the technical parts fascinating to learn! Although the moonwalkers are the primary focus of the book, Chaikin wrote a well-rounded history that encapsulates the entire Apollo story rather well. [...] It will almost make you feel like you were the fourth crewman [From a [review by Concerned Consumer at Amazon.com][2] , December 18, 1999]. [1]: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/andrew-chaikin/a-man-on-the-moon/ "Kirkus Review" [2]: https://www.amazon.com/Man-Moon-Voyages-Apollo-Astronauts/dp/0670814466 "Review by Concerned Consumer at Amazon.com" Preface vii Acknowledgments xi Contents xiii Apollo Landing Sites xvi Prologue 1 BOOK ONE Chapter 1: “Fire in the Cockpit!” 11 Chapter 2: The Office 27 Chapter 3: First Around the Moon (Apollo 8) 56 I: The Decision 56 II: A Hole in the Stars 82 III: “In the Beginning . . 107 IV: “It’s All Over but the Shouting” 125 Chapter 4: “Before This Decade Is Out” 135 I: The Parlay 135 II: “We Is Down Among ’Em!” 150 III: Down to the Wire 160 Chapter 5: The First Lunar Landing (Apollo 11) 184 I: The Eagle Has Landed 184 II: Magnificent Desolation 200 III: “Before This Decade Is Out” 219 BOOK TWO Chapter 6: Sailors on the Ocean of Storms (Apollo 12) 231 I: The Education of Alan Bean 231 II: Shore Leave 253 III: In the Belly of the Snowman 270 Chapter 7: The Crown of an Astronaut's Career (Apollo 13) 285 I: A Change of Fortune 285 II: The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress 303 III: The Chill of Space 318 Chapter 8: The Story of a Full-up Mission (Apollo 14) 337 I: Big A1 Flies Again 337 II: To the Promised Land 352 III: Solo 360 IV: The Climb 364 BOOK THREE Chapter 9: The Scientist 383 Chapter 10: A Fire to Be Lighted 398 Chapter 11: To the Mountains of the Moon (Apollo 15) 411 I: “Exploration at Its Greatest" 411 II: High Point 423 III: The Spirit of Galileo 437 IV: The Final Selection 444 Chapter 12: The Unexpected Moon (Apollo 16) 452 I: Luna Incognita 452 II: “You Just Bit Off More Than You Can Chew" 477 III: “. . . Or Wherever Geologists Go" 482 Chapter 13: The Last Men on the Moon (Apollo 17) 495 I: Sunrise at Midnight 495 II: Apollo at the Limit 516 III: Witnesses to the Earthrise 531 Epilogue: The Audiences of the Moon 553 Appendices 585 Appendix A: Astronaut Biographical Information 585 Appendix B: Persons Interviewed 594 Appendix C: Apollo Mission Data 596 Bibliography 601 Author’s Notes 607 Index 649 Plates 1-8 p. 238 Plates 9-16 p. 430 On the night of July 20, 1969, our world changed forever: two Americans, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, walked on the moon. After the horror of the Kennedy and King assassinations, amid the deepening quagmire of Vietnam, the moon landing brought the sixties to a triumphant end. But the upheavals of that decade have somehow eclipsed this "one giant leap" and the even bolder explorations that followed. Now Andrew Chaikin tells the story of the Apollo missions as never before: through the eyes of the astronauts who made those heroic voyages. A decade in the making, A Man on the Moon is based on hundreds of hours of in-depth interviews with each of the twenty-four moon voyagers, as well as those who contributed unprecendented brain power, training, and teamwork on earth. With breathtaking immediacy, Chaikin conveys every aspect of the Apollo missions, from the rush of liftoff atop a Saturn V rocket to the heart-stopping touchdown on the moon, to the final hurdle of reentry. He tells of the intense competition for a seat on a moon flight, and of the resurrection of Alan Shepard, at age forty-seven, from grounded pilot to moon voyager. We see the Apollo missions unfold from their tragic beginning - the spacecraft fire that killed three astronauts - to their spectacular conclusion high on the slopes of lunar mountains, where the astronauts searched for clues to the origin of the solar system. . Here are the stories of a unique handful of men who have been to the farthest edge of human experience. For the first time, we learn what the men inside the space suits truly felt. Through them we can look back and understand the achievement that began on that almost mythic July night when, as Chaikin writes in his preface, "we touched the face of another world and became a people without limits." It picks up where The Right Stuff left off. [Stu Roosa, Apollo 14, back cover] \*\*\* In a 2007 afterword, Chaikin discusses how a lack of progress in human spaceflight has forced exploration-hungry observers to turn their interest to robotic probes. To be certain, the achievements of these remote-controlled explorers have been impressive and exciting to watch. As Chaikin wrote, two rovers were exploring Mars, Cassini had arrived at Saturn, and New Horizons was just beginning its journey to Pluto. But Chaikin is clear that only human spaceflight can inspire people and ignite their passions in the way Apollo did. [Apollo Review, http://www.apolloreview.com/a-man-on-the-moon/] We have always been familiar with experiments in space and, since July 1969, the landings on the moon. Here, the astronauts speak about how they felt then, how this experience has changed their lives, and how they feel now about their experience. A celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first moon landing offers a technically accessible history of the Apollo Program from its less-than-auspicious beginnings, through its greatest triumps, to its untimely end. Bibliography